$25.7 Million Set Aside for Climate Change Adaptation Project

The Government of Jamaica is to spend some $25.7 million to conclude work on the Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction project this fiscal year.

The sum, which is contained in the 2013/2014 Estimates of Expenditure, now before the House of Representatives, will go towards conducting project evaluation; convening project steering committee meetings; and to complete and close the project.

Being implemented by the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) through funding from the European Union (EU), the Government of Jamaica and the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), the objective of the programme is to increase resilience and reduce risks associated with natural hazards, thereby contributing to sustainable development in Jamaica.

This will be done by rehabilitating and improving the management of selected watersheds to reduce downstream run-off and associated pollution and health risks; restoring and protecting the coastal ecosystem to enhance natural buffers and increasing resilience; integrating climate change mitigation and adaptation into relevant national policies and plans; enhancing institutional capacity; and facilitating awareness building among Jamaica’s population to better adapt to climate change.

Achievements as at February 2013 include the procurement of equipment and signing of Project Cooperation Agreement between the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) and UNEP, while the executing agencies signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU); budgets and detailed work plans were developed; and projects steering committee meetings were convened.

The project, which started in April 2010, is scheduled to be completed by December 2013.

By Latonya Linton, JIS Reporter