VCA report handed over to minister

AMBASSADOR Aad Biesebroek, Head of Delegation of the European Union in Port of Spain, expressed his happiness with the European Union’s Technical Assistance to the Environment Programme for TT during the handover ceremony of the Findings of the Climate Change Vulnerability and Capacity Assessment Report (VCA) to Camille Robinson-Regis, Minister of the Ministry of Planning and Development, at the Trinidad Hilton Hotel & Conference Centre yesterday.

He said the project examined potential and current physical, economic, social and ecolological trends and conditions in selected sectors related to climate change over specific timescales.

The seven priority sectors were agriculture and food security, water resources, human health, coastal resources and fisheries, human settlements and infrastructure, bio diversity and finance sector (including insurance).

There was also a separate study of Tobago.

Biesebroek feels once the recommendations are acted upon it will be to the benefit of TT.

In her own remarks Robinson-Regis thanked the EU for its financial support for the programme and said: “I have taken careful note of the recommendations contained in the report, that call on Government to establish a regulatory framework that would ensure climate change risks, liability to risks, and loss and damage from climate change are included in the national budgeting process; and also climate change risk assessments are undertaken by commercial banks for their lending portfolio. The report also encourages a wider uptake of insurance at various levels in order to transfer risks. Permit me to assure you that these recommendations will receive the active attention of the Government.” She also stated that the VCA to climate risks is both timely and necessary. “Of particular joy was the utilisation of an Integrated Island Management approach in Tobago, to respond to the unique circumstances of its small-island ecosystems, through development of holistic integrated management systems that operate at the scale of ecological, social or physical processes within islands.

Listed in the VCA report as the most vulnerable communities in TT are Salybia, Balandra, Blanchisseuse, Claxton Bay, Tunapuna-Piarco, Penal/Debe, Couva/Talparo, Siparia, Port of Spain, Diego Martin, Sangre Grande, Mayaro, Guayaguayare/Mayaro/Manzanilla, Toco/Matelot, Oroupuche (Mosquito Creek), Penal and Cap-De-Vil in Trinidad. And in Tobago, Delaford, Speyside, Roxborough and Charlotteville.