A delegation from China will, on Friday , make a major presentation here on the challenges and options facing small island states in developing carbon-neutral policies to preserve, protect and promote envi-ronmental protection, in an age of advanced climate change.
President of the Saint Lucia-China Friendship Association (SLCFA) Earl Bousquet says the delegation will come from China’s Yantai City in Shandong Province, “to share with interested persons various initia-tives taken in China and supported by the international community, to encourage and implement zero-carbon initiatives.”
The bulk of the delegation’s presentations, he said, “will be for island regions like the Eastern Caribbe-an, based on successful initiatives in Yantai’s Changdao Island, consisting of 151 islands, with a total island area is 61 square kilometres across 3,291 square kilometres of sea, with a coastline of 226 kilo-metres.
The Chandao archipelago also includes 10 inhabited islands with a population of 40,000 and is the base model for an international zero-carbon island model for global island development and protection.
In 2018, Changdao Island became China’s first marine ecological civilization comprehensive pilot area.
In 2021, Yantai City proposed to build the Changdao International Zero-Carbon Island to carry out comprehensive pilot projects in island protection and development and to set a model for the low-carbon and zero-carbon development of islands.
In 2023, Yantai formulated a related Development Plan (2023-2035), released at the United Nations Framework for Cooperation on Climate Change (UNFCCC) COP28, setting the goal to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions across Changdao Island by 2035.
In July 2024, Changdao Island’s efforts in building an international zero-carbon island, implementing ecological protection and restoration projects and carrying out carbon sequestration in blue carbon ecosystems, were selected for consideration as China’s Marine Eco-Environmental Protection policy.
Asked why the Yantai delegation was visiting Saint Lucia, Bousquet said: “The team is on a regional tour to all Caribbean islands irrespective of diplomatic ties. And since environmental and climate change matters affect all islands, irrespective of governments, Saint Lucia will always have permanent interests in finding ways and means of meeting and overcoming related challenges.”
While here, the delegation will update interested stakeholders on opportunities for participation in the UN-backed international zero-carbon islands initiative, with emphasis on: Electricity, Green Energy, Fish-ing, Tourism, Vocational Education, Water Treatment and Transportation.
Bousquet says several interested stakeholders have been invited and “others interested in learning more about possible participation in the global initiative are also invited to contact the SLCFA
President for attendance and participation.”