The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) will be hosting its 9th Council of Ministers on Environmental Sustainability (COM:ES 09) in St. Vincent and the Grenadines from May 31 – June 2, 2022, under the theme, “Shifting to more Integrated Approaches for Sustainability, Resilience and Prosperity in OECS SIDS.”
As Ministers with responsibility for the Environment meet at the Beachcomber Hotel together with Senior Officials and partners to address unique and unprecedented challenges and opportunities facing the Region, simultaneously, the general public of the host country will be treated to an exhibition on Climate Change, Biodiversity and other environment themes at the Curator’s House in New Montrose, St. Vincent – from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily.
Against the backdrop of the recent “Code Red” and “Now or Never” scorecards by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), OECS countries, amongst the most vulnerable in the world, continue to seek to urgently position themselves globally, regionally and locally to better their chances of survival and prosperity given “the interdependence of climate … and human societies set against concurrently unfolding non-climatic global trends e.g., biodiversity loss, overall unsustainable consumption of natural resources, land and ecosystem degradation, … social and economic inequalities and a pandemic”.
OECS Member States, in recently endorsing the Revised St. George’s Declaration of Principles for Environmental Sustainability (SGD 2040), affirmed that sustainable development in the Eastern Caribbean can be achieved only through a broad alliance of people, governments, civil society, the private sector and international development partners, all working together. COM:ES 09 will facilitate insights and perspectives from key regional and international leaders and influencers from the private sector, civil society, public sector and development partners for designing and accelerating sustainable policies and solutions.
One year following the destructive eruption of the La Soufrière volcano, the host, St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG), will facilitate a strategic site visit on June 2nd to showcase its vivid reality and mobilise support for its recovery strategy which is built on the Vision of “Rising out of the ashes as a resilient, climate responsive society that equitably stimulates human capabilities, sustainable opportunities and an improved quality of life for all”.
An evening Cocktail event on May 31st at the Prime Minister’s Residence will feature the launch of the Eastern Caribbean Regional Conservation Caucus, under the auspices of the International Conservation Caucus Foundation (ICCF), as a follow-up to the recent endorsement of the 6th Sitting of the OECS Assembly.