CARICOM SG lauds Secretariat’s celebration of World Environment Day

Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretary-General Ambassador Irwin LaRocque has lauded as “commendable and timely,” the CARICOM Secretariat’s celebration of World Environmental Day 2015, on Friday 5 June, 2015.

His commendations were made against the background of the priority CARICOM has placed on building environmental resilience in the Strategic Plan for the Caribbean Community 2015-2019: Repositioning CARICOM. Ambassador LaRocque said that the Directorate of Human and Social Development, the Documentation Centre and other units involved in the commemoration ought to be applauded for bringing issues related to environmental sustainability to the attention the Secretariat’s staff.

The CARICOM Secretariat staffers celebrated World Environment Day 2015 by mounting a display of educational materials; writing visions for the Caribbean Environment by 2030 on display boards provided for this purpose; and making pledges of actions to take in their personal lives to help achieve those visions. In this context, Secretary-General LaRocque suggested in that future, the general and online public be accommodated in the observances.

World Environment Day (WED) is the day designated by the United Nations to encourage international awareness for and action on the environment. It is celebrated on 5 June annually with a different issue being highlighted each year.  This year’s theme is ‘Seven Billion Dreams. One Planet. Consume with Care’. This theme advances the position that the well-being of humanity, the environment, and the functioning of the economy, depends upon the responsible management of the planet’s natural resources. The statistics overwhelmingly show that people are consuming far more natural resources than what the planet can sustainably provide over time.

In commenting on the timeliness of the celebration, Secretary-General LaRocque said that matters of sustainable development will feature prominently at the upcoming Thirty-Sixth Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government in St. Michael, Barbados. The discussions, he said, will provide the opportunity for CARICOM Heads of Government to articulate actions and challenges in managing and mitigating CARICOM’s inherent vulnerabilities, to a Regional and international audience.