Caribbean countries to improve climate change resilience with IDB grant

WASHINGTON, United States, Thursday May 28, 2015 – The Caribbean region will increase its resilience to climate change by enhancing the adaptive capacity across the region through a US$10.39 million grant approved by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

The project is the implementation of the Investment Plan for the Caribbean Regional Track of the Pilot Program For Climate Resilience and it will help improve regional processes of climate relevant data acquisition, storage, analysis, access, transfer and dissemination, and pilot and scale up innovative climate resilient initiatives directly in Jamaica, Haiti, Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

However, it is expected that the region as a whole will benefit from the improved capacity and increased information and services related to climate change.

“Thanks to this programme, the Caribbean will build on its historical regional approach to addressing the impacts of climate change and strengthen adaptation efforts across the region, providing an example for other regions globally,” the IDB said.

The project is to be executed by the Mona Office of Research and Innovation at the University of the West Indies’ Mona Campus in Jamaica and will be co-implemented by regional organizations working on climate change in the region including the Caribbean Community Climate change Centre; the Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology, the Climate Change Studies Group of UWI, the Caribbean Public Health Agency, the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute, and the Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism.

The US$10 million grant, through support from the Pilot Program for Climate Resilience (PPCR) of the Climate Investment Funds (CIF), is a five-year programme and will be supervised by the Climate Change and Sustainability Division within the Infrastructure and Environment Sector Department of the IDB.