| Overview : Caribbean countries share similar economic and sustainable development challenges, including a small population, remoteness, susceptibility to natural disasters, and most importantly, vulnerability to climate change and climate variability. Given the current condition of the marine environment, most coastal areas have few defences against the raging surfs of hurricanes and tropical storms, and the likely consequences would be significant to coastal damage including beach erosion and infrastructure damage. Negative impacts associated with climate change on land, water resources and biodiversity have also been predicted, and ultimately, tourism and agriculture will be negatively impacted by these changes. Meanwhile, even though Caribbean countries emit relatively small amounts of greenhouse gases, they will suffer disproportionately from the impacts of climate change. The Japan-Caribbean Climate Change Partnership (J-CCCP) aims to support eight Caribbean countries in advancing the process of low-emission risk-resilient development by improving energy security and integrating medium to long-term planning for adaptation to climate change. Interventions under the Project include supporting policy innovation through the development of a number of Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) and National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) and implementing actual technology that is both low-emission and advances climate risk management, including demonstration in the target countries. The participating countries include Belize, the Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada, the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, Jamaica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and the Republic of Suriname. This project is funded by the Government of Japan and will be implemented by UNDP, with UNDP Barbados & the OECS sub regional office as lead agency. As such the UNDP, together with the Government of Japan is providing assistance to these countries to support the integration of climate change considerations into their national and sectoral planning and budgeting processes, which are in line with the existing United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) endorsed framework for NAPs. It is envisaged that this work will contribute to the regional effort towards the mainstreaming of adaptation actions into the development framework, support concrete actions for inclusion into national fiscal space and greater access to international climate finance for implementation of priority actions. UNDP as the implementing agency of the Project, seeks experienced firms to undertake NAP development for Belize and the Co-operative Republic of Guyana. |
