Representatives from the CARIFORUM Member States as well as Cuba and a number of regional and international organisations have been invited to the Global Climate Change Alliance (GCCA) Caribbean Regional Conference in Belize City, Belize 28-29 March 2011.

This Conference has provided an opportunity for Caribbean countries, EU partners and Caribbean regional organisations to take forward their joint climate change agenda and to discuss the follow-up to the Joint EU-CARIFORUM Declaration, launched by the EU and CARIFORUM Secretariat in Lima, Peru, 17 May 2008.

The Caribbean countries are among the most vulnerable to climate change impacts. The Joint Declaration sets a framework for deeper cooperation between the Caribbean region and the EU on climate change.

In line with its pledges made in Copenhagen and Cancun, the EU is committed to support vulnerable developing countries in coping with climate change. In this context, the EU considers adaptation as one of the priority areas for the 2010-2012 ‘fast-start' funding.

In the region, three countries have already been benefiting from the GCCA: Belize with the aim to enhance adaptive capacity and resilience to climate change in national policies, including the water sectors (2010- € 3.200.000); Jamaica with a focus on the risks associated with natural hazards, the integration of climate change mitigation and adaptation into relevant national policies and plans, and the protection of coastal ecosystem (2009-€ 4.482.420); Guyana, through the support to the Guyana National Mangrove Management Action Plan (2009 - € 4.165.000).

Through the Global Climate Change Alliance the EU intends to deepen climate policy dialogue and to step up cooperation with developing countries most vulnerable to climate change, in particular the Least Developed Countries and the Small Island Developing States. This will contribute to building trust, which is essential to achieve a sound post-2012 climate agreement.

See the Agenda  and the report of the two-days Conference.

The list of the participants to the conference.

Session: "Draft Implementation Plan of the Caribbean Regional Strategy on Climate Change" 

• Presentation of Dr. Kendrick Leslie, Executive Director of the 5C's
• Presentation of Mr. John Firth, Consultant to 5C's
• Presentation Mr. Joseph Mc Gann, Implementation Plan Coordinator to the 5C's

Session: "From Cancun to Durban : Next steps on international climate negotiations"

• Presentation of Mr. Percival Marie, CARICOM Secretariat
• Presentation of Mr Walter kennes, European Commission

• GCCA Background Note
• EU-CARIFORUM Joint Declaration 2008
• CARIFORUM Implementation Plan
• CARIFORUM Implementation Plan, Executive Summary