(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The environmental dimension within the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME), Climate Change and Disaster Management, are high on the agenda of a Special Meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) on the Environment on 17-18 April 2008.

Jamaica will be in the chair for this the Twenty-Fifth Special COTED which will be convened at the Guyana International Convention Centre, Liliendaal, Greater Georgetown, Guyana. It will be preceded by a two-day Meeting of Officials from 14-15 April, also in Georgetown.

The meeting coincides with focused attention on the environment and sustainable development and comes in the wake of the observance on 7 April of World Health Day 2008 under the theme `Protecting Health from Climate Change’.

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.

The Climate Change issues will include a report on the activities of the Belize-based Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre in 2007, and the outcome of the 2007 Bali Negotiations. The Bali Conference in December 2007 focused on a set of ground rules and benchmarks to initiate the next two years of negotiations for a post-2012 multilateral agreement on climate change. At the Conference much emphasis was given to concluding an agreement that includes a strict timetable and inter-Sessional meetings to complete negotiations by 2009, and to ensure enough time to ratify the post-2012 agreement before the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol expires in that year.

Issues related to water management, marine resource management, disaster management, renewable energy and the sustainable management of energy resources in the Caribbean will also be discussed.

Among the other agenda items the Ministers will consider are financing environmental management in the Caribbean, Multilateral Environment Agreements and opportunities for sustainable bio-energy in the Region.