ReliefWeb

Belmopan, Belize, August 23, 2011 – The Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) and the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF) have strengthened their partnership to be able to better assist Caribbean countries to develop climate change adaptation strategies. These two organisations currently play key roles in the collection and provision of critical information and knowledge on the impacts of climate change and by extension natural disasters on Caribbean countries. On August 9, 2011, the organisations signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to formalise this collaboration.

The MOU is designed to assist the governments of Caribbean States in understanding the risks of climate change to their economies and to the peoples of the region and will help to identify cost-effective adaptation measures to support greater climate change resilience at the local, national and regional level. This partnership therefore represents a timely intervention as it is well recognised and agreed that developing countries and small island nations like those in the Caribbean will be among the first and hardest hit by the adverse effects of climate change. In short, the relative burden of additional climate risk the region faces is the highest in the world, while at the same time we have fewer resources to adapt socially, technologically and financially. It is thus anticipated that climate change will have far-reaching effects on the sustainable development of the Caribbean, including our ability to realise the United Nations Millennium Development Goals by 2015.

To better address climate adaptation in the region, this MoU will enable the countries of the region to:

• benefit from capacity building through the elaboration and enhanced use of tools in the areas of catastrophe risk modelling, parametric insurance and alternative risk transfer;

• participate in new programmes and initiatives to assist Caribbean governments in better understanding and financing catastrophe risk exposures which will be increased as a result of climate change;

• pursue the development of common strategies for enhancing and leveraging support for adaptation to climate change by sharing knowledge and pooling resources and expertise;

• gain support for national policy frameworks aimed at enhancing adaptation; and

• access international funding for climate adaptation through mechanisms such as the Adaptation Fund.