Two of Barbados??? adaptation and mitigation measures are being hailed as international best practices for Small Island Developing States (SIDS).
Those are the now completed 2002 Coastal Infrastructure Project and the ongoing 2011 Coastal Risk Assessment and Management Programme, both of which were highlighted by Minister of the Environment and Drainage, Dr. Denis Lowe, during the recent World Environment Day 2014 celebrations.
As Barbados joined the rest of the world to celebrate the global event broadcast across the world live from Barbados this year, Dr. Lowe commended the Coastal Zone Management Unit for the work it did in enhancing and stabilising Barbados??? coastlines.
???Those Inter-American Development Bank-supported interventions are both under the Coastal Zone Management Unit of my Ministry, and seek to preserve and manage Barbados??? coastline. Our coasts are critical economic assets and must be protected from risks associated with climate change,??? he said.
He told his global audience that the Richard Haynes Boardwalk on the south coast, and another project presently being undertaken on the west coast were designed to function as climate-related coastal adaptation measures.
Dr. Lowe gave the assurance that Barbados remained committed to providing a comprehensive framework for the implementation of climate change-related policies, programmes and projects, such as the National Sustainable Development Policy and the Barbados Growth and Development Strategy 2014 to 2020.
He pointed out that recent research showed that there was no doubt that climate change would have a considerable negative effect on the economy and the island???s national development agenda.
The Minister also stated that the onus was on SIDS countries like Barbados to accept the reality that climate change was here to stay, and continue the fight against its impacts.
???We [the Ministry of the Environment and Drainage] have the task of coordinating the national response to climate change. The key mechanism for the coordination of this response is the draft National Climate Change Policy which was prepared by the National Climate Change Committee,??? the Minister said.
The Ministry of the Environment and Drainage is the National focal point for the United Nations??? Climate Change Convention, the Kyoto Protocol, the Clean Development Mechanism, and the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change.
julia.rawlins-bentham@barbados.gov.bb