Jamaica
Thank you Mr Chair.
Jamaica associates itself with the statement made by Grenada on behalf of AOSIS and
would like to emphasize the fact that the impacts of Climate Change have started to affect
our Island.
We are still recovering from the ravages of Hurricane Ivan in 2004 which cost the
Government of Jamaica over US$500 million in damage and had a negative impact on
the country?s economic performance. These circumstances are stalk reminders of the
IPCC findings of more frequent and more severe hurricanes and serves to highlight the
vulnerability of Jamaica to climate change. This also serves to stress the urgency for the
conduct of a comprehensive vulnerability assessment and the implementation of
counteractive adaptation strategies.
Mr. Chair,
Jamaica supports the need for the continuation of the dialogue on mitigation as well as
adaptation, and we follow a ?no regret? mitigation policy as it relates to climate change.
Climate Change adaptation planning in Jamaica is an integrated process and encompasses
all the sectors, including coastal zone management and water resources, and is also
included in environmental impact assessments.
We support other interventions that stress the need for the speedy implementation of the
adaptation fund and encourage speedy progress in the setting up of the insurance fund.
Finally, Mr Chair, Jamaica also reiterates the urgent need for capacity building in
regional institutions of excellence and wishes to acknowledge the work that has been
ongoing at the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) and the
University of the West Indies (UWI). Work has been started in the area of statistical
downscaling of the global climate models which is particularly important since this
allows us to see what the future climate would look like for small islands like ours which
are not captured by the global models.
Mr. Chair, these are just a few of the issues which we deem critical to our existence.
Thank you.
Jamaica associates itself with the statement made by Grenada on behalf of AOSIS and
would like to emphasize the fact that the impacts of Climate Change have started to affect
our Island.
We are still recovering from the ravages of Hurricane Ivan in 2004 which cost the
Government of Jamaica over US$500 million in damage and had a negative impact on
the country?s economic performance. These circumstances are stalk reminders of the
IPCC findings of more frequent and more severe hurricanes and serves to highlight the
vulnerability of Jamaica to climate change. This also serves to stress the urgency for the
conduct of a comprehensive vulnerability assessment and the implementation of
counteractive adaptation strategies.
Mr. Chair,
Jamaica supports the need for the continuation of the dialogue on mitigation as well as
adaptation, and we follow a ?no regret? mitigation policy as it relates to climate change.
Climate Change adaptation planning in Jamaica is an integrated process and encompasses
all the sectors, including coastal zone management and water resources, and is also
included in environmental impact assessments.
We support other interventions that stress the need for the speedy implementation of the
adaptation fund and encourage speedy progress in the setting up of the insurance fund.
Finally, Mr Chair, Jamaica also reiterates the urgent need for capacity building in
regional institutions of excellence and wishes to acknowledge the work that has been
ongoing at the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) and the
University of the West Indies (UWI). Work has been started in the area of statistical
downscaling of the global climate models which is particularly important since this
allows us to see what the future climate would look like for small islands like ours which
are not captured by the global models.
Mr. Chair, these are just a few of the issues which we deem critical to our existence.
Thank you.
Stakeholders