BELIZE CITY – The Japan-Caribbean Climate Change Partnership (J-CCCP) provided climate change training to more than thirty journalists from across the region.
On April 26, the J-CCCP, a project of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) which is funded by the Government of Japan, commenced the training seminar at the Ramada Princess Hotel in Belize City, Belize.
The two-day training seminar enabled media practitioners to learn and share best practices on climate change issues, including climate change science, economics and policy as well as the role of media entities in communicating on climate change.
At the end of the training, journalists were able to refute climate change myths, plan and develop messages and content on climate change while placing it all into the Caribbean context. A noteworthy experience for many participants was their visit to the Southside community in Belize City where they had the opportunity to chat with residents who have experienced repeated flooding and erosion. This for many practitioners brought home the human impact of climate change.
The J-CCCP is a regional initiative working in 8 Caribbean countries, including Belize, Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Suriname to support advancing the process of inclusive low-emission climate-resilient development. The programme of work under the JCCCP is in line with the Paris Agreement on Climate Change to keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius and to drive efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
Climate change is one of the most serious challenges to the Caribbean and as such boosting resilience is crucial for the region’s development and is a clear part of UNDP’s global strategic plan of programme priorities. Climate change can contribute to more intense storm systems in the region and negative impacts on land, water resources and biodiversity associated with climate change have also been predicted. Agriculture, fisheries, water and sanitation, human health and coastal resources and infrastructure are all being affected by climate change and require responses at both community and national levels in the region.