BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, June 10, 2010 - Grenada is urging the United States to complete domestic legislative processes involving climate change and energy security during 2010 since this will significantly and positively impact on the outcomes achieved in Cancun, Mexico later this year.
Foreign Affairs Minister Peter David told Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday that the 2010 hurricane season is predicted to be exceptionally active and such predictions underscore our sense that talks should progress toward conclusions with urgency.
He noted the challenges her administration is currently experiencing at the national level in this regard but urges dialogue and cooperation.
“The intergovernmental negotiations have begun again in full earnest for 2010, meeting now in a first substantive round in Bonn, Germany,” Mr. David told Mrs. Clinton during an informal meeting between CARICOM Foreign Ministers and the Secretary of State in Barbados.
“In the context of CARICOM and AOSIS, Grenada continues to put proposals on the table as well as to respond to the proposal of others, in ways that can move the process forward. We have been arguing that we be guided by good information, including a scientific survey on knowledge already in the public domain,” he said.
He said that these negotiations are extremely important to our survival as small island developing states.
“We want to emphasise the need for very ambitious outcomes in Cancun, outcomes that address the need to urgently reduce greenhouse gas emissions within a global legally binding framework, as well as to initiate the process of adapting to climate change, through provision of financing among other things. It is not one, or the other - we need to do both.”
“We also want to urge you to continue to encourage your delegation to be sensitive to the needs and concerns expressed by our countries at these negotiations and to provide support in advancing them,” said Minister David.
He said that addressing energy security and climate change together can be very supportive for our long term development, especially as we look forward to the September five-year review of the Mauritius Strategy for Implementation for the Barbados Programme of Action for Small Island Developing States.
“The Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas, ECPA, continues to receive our support as a place for CARICOM to work with you and USAID in support of CARICOM energy needs,” he said.
Energy and Climate Change Co-operation were among agenda items discussed with the US Secretary of State. The effect of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative (CBSI), Trade, the impact of the Global Financial and Economic Crisis and Health and Development Co-operation were also discussed.
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