Turks and Caicos Islands to adopt climate change adaptation strategies

Turks and Caicos Weekly News Online: The Turks and Caicos Islands Government (TCIG) is seeking to include climate change adaptation strategies into the disaster management system of the Turks and Caicos Islands in a region-wide collaborative effort that is expected to prepare vulnerable Caribbean nations for the effects of climate change.

And as part of the climate change response, the Department of Disaster Management and Emergencies (DDME) in collaboration with the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) hosted two days of consultation from July 24 to 25 on ‘Mainstreaming Climate Change Adaptation into Comprehensive Disaster Management Phase II (CCDM-II)’ and ‘Climate Smarting of the Country Work Programme (CS-CWP)’ in the Turks and Caicos Islands.

...During the workshop, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed between the Turks and Caicos Islands Government (TCIG), the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA), Messenger Baptist Church, All Saints Baptist Church and the Gustarvus Lightbourne Sports Complex, as stakeholder groups took advanced action in the area of climate change.

Director of the Department of Disaster and Emergency Management (DDME), Dr. Virginia Clerveaux, commenting on the renewed focus on climate change, said: "This two day workshop focuses on mainstreaming climate change adaptation into comprehensive disaster management and in ensuring that our country work programme is climate smart.

..."Amidst concerns over global economic pressures, climate change has quite frankly slipped to the bed burner of policy priorities but the problem is not going away, in fact it is quite the opposite, the evidence of climate change due to human behaviour is quite literally undeniable and the evidence leads to models and predictions which are becoming clearer about the extent of the impact that we are likely to experience.”...