Dr. Carla Barnett, CARICOM Secretary-General, on Monday, 11 November, joined regional Government Ministers in bilateral discussions with the Hon. Steven Guilbeault, the Minister of Environment and Climate Change of Canada.

The Hon. Frederick Mitchell, Minister of Foreign Affairs of The Bahamas, the Hon. Dr. Marciano Dasai, Minister of Environment and Spatial Planning of Suriname, and high-level representatives from Belize, St. Kitts and Nevis, Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana, participated in the meeting which was held in the margins of the Twenty-Ninth Meeting of the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change that is underway in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Among the areas for discussion were CARICOM’s priorities for the meeting; the new climate finance goal; special consideration for Small Island Developing States (SIDS) within this new goal and improving the ease of access to the funds; the need for large emitters to close the gap to keep 1.5℃ goal alive; and the importance of support from the Government of Canada in advocating for the use of the Multidimensional Vulnerability Index.

Brief discussions were also held on the Fifth Session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-5) to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment. That meeting is scheduled for 25 November- 1 December in Busan, Republic of Korea.