(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The inaugural meeting of the CARICOM Task Force on Climate Change and Development was held in Saint Lucia. The Task Force will facilitate and coordinate technical work, advise on policy directions on climate change, and provide support to CARICOM Member States in their preparations for key regional, hemispheric and other global forums and in their negotiations with international development partners.

The Task Force agreed that its operations must seek to engage stakeholders in the public and private sectors, civil society, youth and the media. It must also be united in advocating the regional priorities within the Group of 77 and the Alliance of Small Island States which have great influence on determining the international directions on the post-2012 Kyoto Framework of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The Task Force will engage in the development of a consolidated position to be represented at the 14th Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP) of the UNFCCC to be held in Poznan, Poland in December 2008, which will arrive at critical decisions for the establishment benchmarks for the next COP Session in Copenhagen, Denmark scheduled for December 2009.

Members of the Task Force include a distinguished group of regional experts.