$60 Million Allocated For Climate Change Project

The Government has budgeted $60 million for activities under the Adaptation Programme and Financing Mechanism (AP&FM) project, which seeks to help Jamaica adjust more easily to climate change.

The money was allotted in the 2022/23 Estimates of Expenditure, now before the House of Representatives.

The project, which began in February 2015 and is slated to end in June 2022, is part of the Pilot Programme for Climate Resilience II (PPCR II).

It supports the integration of climate-change issues into development planning by government agencies, and provides funds for climate change adaptation work in small and medium-sized businesses as well as communities islandwide.

The funds allocated for 2022/23 will go towards conducting the final evaluation, post-impact assessment and economic analysis, the final audit, and executing the project management close-out activities.

Up to December 2021 under the project, crop resilience/suitability modelling activities were completed, a sediment budget monitoring programme was conducted in the Upper Rio Minho Watershed Area (URMWA); 30 persons were trained in leading and coordinating the mainstreaming of climate change; seven technical papers to support the development of the National Spatial Plan were completed; and a climate change awareness programme for policymakers and government ministries was undertaken.

The project also saw the construction of 1,880 micro check dams in the URMWA to reduce the flow of flood waters on slopes and waterways (drains); establishment of five aquaponics systems; development of vulnerability assessments for 15 priority communities in the URMWA; and establishment of 50 rainwater harvesting systems, and three greenhouses.

Other achievements under the project include rehabilitation of the Morgan’s Pass Post-Harvesting Processing facility, completion of a reforestation programme where 15 hectares of forest were planted in Pennants, and 15 Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction plans were completed.

In addition, 290 micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) benefited from the Climate Change Adaptation Line of Credit to support climate-smart business initiatives.

A total of 127 non-governmental organisations (NGOs)/community-based organisations (CBOs) benefited from grant funding through the Special Climate Change Adaptation Fund to implement climate-smart activities, and the PPCR Jamaica webpage (http://www.ppcrja.org.jm) was developed.

The project is being implemented by the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation with funding from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Government of Jamaica.