Saturday, January 10, 2009

Impact of sea level rise project for Antigua

Antigua Sun: If sea levels continue to rise at their current rate, climate experts predict that the Caribbean island of Barbuda will be submerged by 2060. According to Antiguan Ambassador Diann Black-Layne, the two islands will have to start serious preparations for adaptation to climate change especially as it would impact tourism.

“For Antigua and Barbuda, it means that our coastal zone is going to be flooded by the sea,” Black-Layne said in an exclusive interview while in Poznan. “Tourism is 50 or 60 per cent of our GDP, and it exists mostly on the coast. This means Antigua will need somehow to protect its coasts, and besides building roads the government will have to build structures to protect the coastline.”

...Caribbean countries such as Jamaica should be able to start getting money to finance projects that will help them prepare for climate change by as early 2009.Speaking at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Poznan, Poland, Jamaican meteorologist Jeffery Spooner said he was optimistic that countries could access funding set aside for adaptation projects by the first quarter of next year. Adaptation refers to an adjustment in natural or human systems to a new or changing environment.

The money will come from The Adaptation Fund, a proposal developed to finance projects in developing countries to deal with the effects of global warming. These include rising sea levels and increased frequency and intensity of hurricanes. The Adaptation Fund will be financed by a two per cent levy on developed countries….

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