Updated Climate Change Policy To Be Aligned With New Realities

Updates to the Climate Change Policy Framework will bring the document into “alignment with new realities” says Acting Senior Director of the Environment and Risk Management Branch, Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, Nicole O’Reggio.

The Ministry crafted Jamaica’s Climate Change Policy Framework in 2015, which prioritised the establishment of a sustainable institutional mechanism to coordinate climate action in Jamaica. Since then, a number of developments have taken place that necessitated updates to the policy.

“The primary driver for the update is the fact that Jamaica is now a signatory and ratified the Paris Agreement under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. This Agreement has significantly changed the context for climate action, not just for Jamaica but for all signatories.

The Paris Agreement focuses on mainly mitigation actions, and so it was very important that this 2015 policy framework was updated to bring it into alignment with new realities,” Ms. O’Reggio told JIS News.

Additionally, since the crafting of the 2015 policy, Jamaica has established a Climate Change Division, a Climate Change Advisory Board and a Climate Change Focal Point Network, which constitutes the sustainable institutional mechanisms the framework focused on.

“We also have various changing national priorities. There are changes in the legislative and policy agenda for Jamaica, in transportation, the energy sector, natural resources and the built environment, including forestry, water, air quality management and housing,” the Environment and Risk Management Senior Director told JIS News.

The updates to the Climate Change Policy Framework now allow the country to focus on achieving the three goals listed in the framework. These goals are the strengthening of Jamaica’s adaptive capacity and resilience to reduce its vulnerability to climate change; the pursuit of low carbon development and enhancement of access to and mobilisation of climate finance, and the promotion of public education and awareness raising, research and technology transfer towards ambitious climate action.

Listed in the updated Climate Change Policy Framework are a number of actions that will be taken to ensure that each goal is met. The wide-ranging actions rely heavily on collaboration among government, private sector and citizenry.

The updated Climate Change Policy Framework is available for viewing on the Ministry’s website at www.megjc.gov.jm/policies/ and the public is invited to review the document and submit comments and input via email to policycomments@megjc.gov.jm before March 31.