Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation in Jamaica, Senator Matthew Samuda, has called for improved partnership between the public and private sectors in the fight against climate change.
This is as the country marks its fifth year of ratifying the Paris Agreement. In July 2020, Jamaica became the first Caribbean country to submit a stricter climate plan to the United Nations under the Paris Agreement by adding targets for forestry and stepping up limits on greenhouse gas emissions.
Speaking at this year’s staging of ‘Uncut Conversations on Climate Change’, an unscripted, open multi-stakeholder forum at The Terra Nova All-Suite Hotel in Kingston, Samuda said that partnerships remained the only way to achieve success in the fight against climate change.
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“So we absolutely cannot understate the important role that you all can play as our partners in reducing our vulnerability to the changing climate,” the Senator said, adding that the government was working to ensure that Jamaica benefit from the implementation of the Paris Agreement which was ratified in 2017.
He explained that the Agreement sets out a global framework to avoid dangerous climate change by limiting global warming to well below two degrees Celsius, and pursuing efforts to limit it to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
He noted that the central aim of the Agreement is to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change as well as the ability of countries to deal with the impacts.
“Public funds are simply not enough to address the adversity of climate change; therefore, we need financing from all available sources – public, private, domestic and international – if we truly want to transition to low carbon and climate resilience,” Samuda said.
The senator argued that it was within the private sector that the investments for transformation to low carbon and climate-resilient society rested, adding that he was encouraged by the engagement of the representatives who participated in the ‘Uncut Conversations’ sessions, which began on Wednesday, May 4.
Story was adapted from Jamaica Observer.
