By Gary EleazarHead of State Bharrat Jagdeo shortly after arriving in the country yesterday told a welcoming party that there is a conference slated for sometime soon where regional representatives can brainstorm and come up with a mechanism that would allow for the flow of some US$500M a year in assisting climate change mitigation.Jagdeo was speaking to the proposed US$10B for vulnerable and developing countries over a three-year period.The money was first announced by French President Nicolas Sarkozy during a press briefing in Trinidad and Tobago during the last Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting at which he was a special invitee to lend weight to the significance of the need for a climate change fight, and the fact that vulnerable and developing countries need to be financially assisted.President Jagdeo was at the time drawing reference to the fact that there is more to be done by people to enlighten those who are still blocking the necessary policy decisions that have to be made to commit the fight against climate change necessary to avert adverse damage.“Those…who still don’t want to pay their fair share…this is why Copenhagen did not deliver the results that we anticipated.”He said that among the results was the greater commitment to the $10B over the next three years, “we are trying to get more to come to our countries.”Jagdeo said that during the CARICOM-Brazil Summit he held discussions with his colleagues on making that a reality.“In fact I just spoke to Stephenson King, the Prime Minister of Saint Lucia, because he holds the portfolio with responsibility for the environment, and I said that we are going to have a conference here to define how the Caribbean could get at least $500M per annum from the $10B.”Jagdeo said that he impressed the fact that this has to be done quickly.At a press briefing in March, he lamented the fact that the mechanism to access the proposed money was yet to be established.“Very little has been done,” Jagdeo had said, as it relates to having the pledged money placed in the fund.Even at that time he had indicated that the region could see some US$500M when this fund becomes a reality, given that the region is considered to be very vulnerable to climate change.Jagdeo said that at this point in time, there is a need for the World Bank to start to play a greater role in effecting this change.Only recently, at the Twenty-First Inter-Sessional Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) held in Roseau, Dominica,NFL Jerseys From China, the Heads asked for the World Bank to help in the early release of US$30B that was earmarked for developing countries for the fight against climate change.
