(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Technical officers and experts in the field of the environment today buckled down to the business of fleshing out responses to the varied environmental problems facing the Region as the Twenty-Fifth Special Meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) got underway at the Guyana International Conference Centre (GICC) in Georgetown.

The Special COTED Meeting focuses on the Environment. The two-day Meeting of Officials precedes the Ministerial Meeting which begins on Thursday at the GICC and concludes on Friday.

Dr. Edward Greene, Assistant Secretary-General Human and Social Development, welcomed delegates to the meeting on behalf of H.E. Edwin Carrington, Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).

All items on the formidable agenda, he said, were important, particularly within the context of the issues unfolding in the international and regional arena. He urged delegates to engage in free and frank discussions on the way forward.

Among the items on the agenda are the environmental dimension of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME). With the continued degradation of the environment and manifestations of the resultant havoc that could be wreaked on Caribbean territories, resolution of environmental issues is central to the effective functioning of the CSME. It is in this regard that the meeting is to consider the development of a regional Environmental Policy.

Issues related to Climate Change and Water Management, Disaster Management, Renewable Energy, Environmental Governance, Marine Resource Management and Financing the Environmental Management of the Caribbean are also on the agenda.

Apart from Member States of the Community, other attendees of the Meeting of Officials are representatives of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), the University of the West Indies, the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency (CDERA).