US announces Caribbean climate change adaptation initiative

RTTNews: U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, currently on a visit to Jamaica, announced progress on existing programs and new initiatives between the United States and the Caribbean as part of the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas (ECPA). Delivering remarks at the high-level Caribbean-U.S. Conference in the Jamaican city of Montego Bay, Clinton announced a new Caribbean Climate Change Adaptation Initiative.

She invited all Caribbean countries to join the new ECPA initiative to build permanent, regional capacity in the area of climate change adaptation. The initiative will focus on acquiring and modeling Caribbean-specific data for use in planning and policy decisions.

The University of the West Indies has agreed to partner with American universities to expand research on problems and solutions specific to the Caribbean and to serve as a hub to connect scientists from across the Caribbean and from the United States with policy-makers.

Through a grant to Higher Education for Development, the ECPA Caribbean Adaptation Initiative will partner U.S. higher education institutions with the University of the West Indies to enhance research, expand higher education programs, and promote outreach to policy-makers.

Clinton announced that six Caribbean governments will receive technical assistance grants to accelerate renewable energy development. The Organization of American States (OAS) invited all Caribbean governments to submit proposals, and selected the top six -- Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Jamaica, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines -- based on technical merit….

This 1824 rendering of Montego Bay by James Hakewill was done from Reading Hill, over which the King's Road to Westmoreland passes.