Jamaican meteorological officer to serve on UN Adaptation Fund board

Jamaica Observer: Meteorologist Jeffrey Spooner has been confirmed to serve on the Adaptation Fund Board of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which is to meet in Germany for the first time this month. Spooner, the holder of a master's degree in Applied Meteorology from the University of Redding, will represent the Group of Latin America and Caribbean Countries (GRULAC) on the board. He has worked with Jamaica's Met Office since 1976 and is currently head of the Climate Branch.

Meanwhile, the Adaptation Fund Board is to administer the Adaptation Fund, which was established to finance concrete adaptation projects and programmes in developing countries, such as Jamaica, which are parties to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. "It is to be financed with a share of proceeds from the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) project activities and receive funds from other sources," according to information from the UNFCCC secretariat. "The share of proceeds amounts to two per cent of certified emission reductions (CERs) issued for a CDM project activity." The first meeting in Bonn, Germany between March 26 and 28, is intended to work out the details of the board's operations. Among the items on the agenda are:

• the election of a chairman and vice-chairman for 2008/09;
• the establishment of its rules of procedures for its operation;
• detailing its role and responsibilities;
• identifying the role and responsibilities of its secretariat;
• identifying the role and responsibilities of the implementing or executing agencies;
• outlining its operational policies and guidelines for access to funding by implementing or executing entities; and
• working out the monetisation of CERs.

The 16-member board is also mandated to work out the legal arrangements between the Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties (COP/MOP) to the Kyoto Protocol. In addition, they are to draft a 2008 work plan for the Adaptation Fund Board.

Despite the task with which he is faced, Spooner said he was happy to serve. "I am really honoured to be nominated, and supported by the GRULAC community and I intend to serve to the best of my ability," the 51-year-old told the Observer. "Being a new arm of the UNFCCC, I am really more elated to be at that initial stage. It is going to be incumbent on us to ensure that we take full advantage of this new board." Spooner was a member of the negotiating team that went to Bali, Indonesia for the United Nations Climate Change conference last December. He will join his colleague Clifford Mahlung as a member of a UNFCCC structure. Mahlung, Jamaica's chief climate negotiator and who was also a part of the team that went to Indonesia last year, is serving on the CDM board.

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