Time for the Cayman Islands to go green with alternative energy

Could the days of natural gas be over in Cayman? Billionaire entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson is looking to wean ten islands off the fossil fuel fix.

“I am having people come to me and say we cannot afford to pay our mortgage and electrical bill this month. We have to decide – do we pay our light bill or our mortgage,” said Nicholas Robson of Cayman Institute.

Environment Minister Wayne Panton tells Cayman 27 he and Finance Minister Hon. Marco Archer will attend next month’s (February) summit in the BVI. More

Cayman 27′s Tammi Sulliman reports.

 

Caribbean Regional Preparatory Meeting for the 2014 Third International Conference on Small Island Developing States (SIDS)

The Caribbean Regional Preparatory Meeting for the Third International Conference on Small Island Developing States (SIDS) took place in Kingston, Jamaica, from 2-4 July 2013.

This meeting was the first stop along the road to the Conference in Apia, Samoa in September 2014 and provided an opportunity for the Caribbean SIDS to: assess progress and remaining gaps in implementation of the Barbados Programme of Action and the Mauritius Strategy for Implementation; seek a renewed political commitment; identify new and emerging challenges and opportunities for sustainable development of SIDS; and identify priorities for the sustainable development of SIDS to be considered in the elaboration of the post-2015 UN development agenda.

Approximately 100 participants, including representatives of Caribbean governments, UN and regional agencies and organizations, and Major Groups, attended the three-day session. After two days of panel presentations and interactive discussions, government delegates met to identify priorities and draft the outcome document. This document was negotiated in a formal setting on Thursday. After two readings of the document, the twelve remaining delegates began a final round of negotiations at midnight and adopted the 44-paragraph Kingston Outcome of the Caribbean Regional Preparatory Meeting for the Third International Conference on Small Island Developing States at 4:55 am on Friday, 5 July 2014. The Kingston Outcome will be the basis of the Caribbean regional position at the Inter-regional Preparatory Meeting to be held in Barbados from 26-28 August 2013.

The Summary of this meeting is now available in PDF format http://www.iisd.ca/download/pdf/enb0849e.pdf and in HTML format at http://www.iisd.ca/vol08/enb0849e.html

 

A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF THE MEETING

“As a man sow, shall he reap, and I know that talk is cheap.” – Bob Marley

A year after governments at Rio+20 called for the convening of a third conference on SIDS, substantive preparations are now underway. The Caribbean regional preparatory meeting was the first stop along the road to the Third International Conference on SIDS, in Apia, Samoa in September 2014. It provided an opportunity for the Caribbean SIDS to assess progress and remaining gaps in implementation of the BPOA and MSI, identify new and emerging challenges and opportunities for sustainable development of SIDS, and identify priorities for the sustainable development of SIDS to be considered in the elaboration of the post-2015 UN development agenda.

This brief analysis will examine how the process evolved during the three-day preparatory meeting and how this will feed into the overall preparatory process for the 2014 Apia Conference. More

UN and Samoa: 2014 Small Islands Sustainability Conference

United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs Wu Hongbo is leading a UN planning mission to Samoa to prepare for the 2014 Third International Conference on Small Island Developing States. Mr. Wu is also Secretary-General of …UN and Samoa Launch Preparations for 2014 Small Islands Sustainability Conference

Apia, Samoa, 1 April 2013 – United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs Wu Hongbo is leading a UN planning mission to Samoa to prepare for the 2014 Third International Conference on Small Island Developing States. Mr. Wu is also Secretary-General of the Conference.

Countries agreed at last year’s Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development that greater efforts were needed to assist small island developing States and called for convening a conference in 2014. The General Assembly has accepted Samoa’s offer to host the Conference.

Mr. Wu will meet with Samoan Prime Minister Tuilaepa Lupesoliai Sa’ilele Malielegaoi on 2 April and will tour the proposed conference site.

The Samoa Conference will follow up on the outcomes of the two previous international conferences on small island developing States held in Barbados in 1994 and Mauritius in 2005.

“Small island developing States are on the frontlines of sustainable development and despite their unique vulnerabilities, they never shy away from tackling head-on the social, economic and environmental challenges facing their communities”, says Mr. Wu. “The world should take notice how these countries are dealing with a range of economic, social and environmental issues, including the impacts of climate change, such as rising sea levels and extreme weather events. The Samoa Conference will help guide us all toward a sustainable future.”

“The decision to hold a small island developing States review meeting in 2014 is important and timely,” Samoa Prime Minister Malielegaoi told the General Assembly in September. “Coincidentally, 2014 holds special significance for Samoa. Barring any natural catastrophes, we will graduate from the category of Least Developed Countries on 1 January that year.

“We want to underscore that through genuine partnerships with development partners our Small Island Developing State, also a least developed country, is able to markedly lift the socio-economic situation of our country and the standard of living for our people.” He added the success of meetings “should be measured on the quality of the decisions and commitments agreed to, not just on costs and number of participants considerations only.”

At Rio+20, countries agreed that small island developing States remain a special case for sustainable development because of their small size, their remoteness, small natural resource base and because they are especially vulnerable to extreme weather events and the impacts of climate change. More