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| Minister of the Environment and Drainage, Dr. Denis Lowe |
Climate change is present, and in some instances, may be unavoidable!
That is the reality Barbados and other countries now face as they continue to experience the impacts of climate change.
Therefore, countries now have to address just how they will deal with the loss and damage to the environment and economies that result from climate change.
The issue of Loss and Damage Associated with the Adverse Effects of Climate Change will take centre stage tomorrow, Tuesday, October 9, when the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Expert Meeting for Small Island Developing States is held at Hilton Barbados at 9:00 a.m.
Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC, Christiana Figueres, will deliver the keynote address at the opening ceremony, while Minister of the Environment and Drainage, Dr. Denis Lowe, will give the welcome address.
The phrase "loss and damage" refers to the entire range of damage and loss associated with climate change impacts in developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change that can no longer be avoided through mitigation, or through adaptation.
According to a report by Doreen Stabinsky and Juan Hoffmaister of the Third World Network, impacts of climate change include droughts, heavy flooding, stronger hurricanes, crop reduction, and reduced fisheries and tourism revenues due to coral bleaching factors which are projected to cost Latin America approximately $100 billion per year by 2050.
It explained that economic loses were those caused by floods, hurricanes, or crop loss due to drought or extreme heat, while non-economic losses were those related to culture, loss of livelihood or territory or species extinction.
The three-day expert meeting is expected to examine the loss and damage associated with climate change impacts, and to see how countries like Barbados can guard against them in the future, and examine what measures can be put in place to deal with what is already happening.