Ross Sheil, Staff Reporter
JAMAICA WILL host an inaugural regional climate change conference in April. The Caribbean Climate Change Conference (C3) is to be held at the Rose Hall Resort in Montego Bay over two and a half days beginning Monday April 10.
Organised by Eco-Tec, a Westmoreland-based company that markets energy-saving products, the conference has so far received endorsements from the ministries of Land and Environment and the Commerce, Science and Technology.
"We are organising this conference because we feel first of all that more people need to understand the implications of climate change for the Caribbean. Secondly, it is a wonderful opportunity for people to understand the opportunities for education, business and technology transfer in relation to environmentally-sustainable technologies," said Eco-Tec publicity manager and C3 organiser Chinyere Nwaogwugwu.
"The conference will focus less on the problems will climate change, but rather on their solutions to this and on energy-saving technologies," said Ms. Nwaogwugwu.
INCREASE IN ENERGY EFFICIENCY
Professor Anthony Clayton, the Alcan Professor of Caribbean Sustainable Development at the University of the West Indies (UWI) Mona, welcomed the conference and its focus on solutions. "I think it's important because the debate has been bogged down by problems with the Kyoto Treaty (on climate change). This will be quite helpful because we can only make a difference concerning climate change by a private sector-led response to increase efficiency in energy use and transport."
Anchored by the National Energy Policy - to be announced before Prime Minister's P.J. Patterson's departure - the Government is currently trying to reign in the country's increasing fuel bill.
Former Managing Director of the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica (PCJ), Raymond Wright has estimated that Jamaica spends US$0.65 on energy for every US$1 Jamaica earns through production.
"We thought that ... greater understanding of climate change among the population must help us because we will lose a hell of a lot if we continue to have so many hurricanes," said Minister of Land of Environment Dean Peart in explaining his endorsement of C3.
Global warming has been attributed to an increasing incidence of hurricanes with the 2005 season being the most active in recorded history.
Global warming which has increased the temperature of the sea is thought to have contributed to this, since hurricanes can only form over warm water.
The Atlantic Ocean is thought to have warmed by 0.6°C over the last few decades.
