OAS Urged to Facilitate Cooperation to Address Climate Change

Minister of State for Energy and Mining, Hon. Laurence Broderick, has called on the Organization of American States (OAS) to play its part in facilitating cooperation between oil producing and consuming countries in addressing climate change.
“There is an urgent need to demonstrate a greater resolve by the stronger nations in assisting the non-producing nations,” Mr. Broderick stated as he delivered Jamaica’s position at the ‘Energy and Climate Change of the Americas Preparatory Ministerial Meeting’ at the OAS headquarters in Washington DC on April 16.
This cooperation, Mr. Broderick pointed out, is necessary in order to establish a workable framework agreement between the parties to strengthen and coordinate resources aimed at combating global climate change.
“This will require us to confront the various barriers, not the least of which is the provision of concessionary financing to energy poor states to radically improve their energy infrastructure,” he pointed out.
Minister Broderick said that like many island states in the region, Jamaica is over 90 per cent dependent on imported fossil fuel to meet its energy needs and the sharp rise in oil prices during 2008 and general capriciousness in the price of the commodity have placed sharp focus on the need for the country to diversify its energy base.
The State Minister said that Jamaica welcomes and supports wholeheartedly the initiative led by United States President, Barack Obama and leaders from across the western hemisphere, to work together to mitigate climate change, promote energy security and efficiency and to end energy poverty.
He told the delegates that “we, in the Americas, must now commit ourselves by responding vigorously to the challenges of energy security, climate change and environmental protection through our domestic practices and our international cooperation. If we are to move to the low carbon economy, we will need to engage in policy dialogue, cooperate on capacity building and research, as well as develop and deploy climate friendly technologies.”
“We recognise that we must reconcile our energy security objectives with climate change mitigation through closer co-operation. To achieve this, we must establish a framework of agreement between us, especially the Caribbean, to strengthen and coordinate our resources aimed at combating global climate change,” he stated.
The State Minister was accompanied by Senior Energy Engineer in the Ministry, Mr. Fitzroy Vidal and Jamaica’s alternate representative to the OAS, Ms. Ann Scott.
The theme of the conference was: ‘Caribbean Sustainable Energy; Developing Indigenous Resources and Building Interconnections.’