Last Updated on August 25, 2023, 4:45 AM AST by Anthony Morris
The Ministry of Environment, Climate Action and Constituency Empowerment, Joyelle Clarke, recently travelled to Canada, Vancouver to attend the Ministerial on Nature on the margins of the Seventh Assembly of the Global Environment Facility (GEF). The Minister took the opportunity to highlight that she was very happy to attend the event.
She claimed that the event allowed her to discuss St Kitts and Nevis’s plan for creating a sustainable island state. The leader of St Kitts and Nevis and the prime Minister of St Kitts and Nevis, Dr Terrance Drew, has insisted on making the federation a sustainable island state.
Accordingly, the Minister spoke of the various methods and initiatives the island has taken to come through on its mandate of creating a sustainable island state. The platform on which the Minister of Environment, Climate Action, Constituency Empowerment, et al., highlighted the initiatives of St Kitts and Nevis was provided by the government of Canada.
The Federal Minister of Canada for the Environment and Climate Change, Steven Guilbeault, was responsible for hosting the Ministerial. He stated that the event aims to build on the gains made at the Conference of the Parties on the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15). They also built upon the significant Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, which the international authorities agreed to last year (2022) in Montreal.
Minister Joyelle Clarke, who handles the responsibility for the Ministry of Environment, climate action and constituency environment in the government of St Kitts and Nevis, spoke at the platform regarding the various steps they are taking to update the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan.
She claimed that the administration seeks to align the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan with the Global Biodiversity Framework. Meanwhile, the Global Biodiversity Framework aims to protect 30 per cent of sea and land by 2030.
Minister Clarke added that the country is mobilizing resources and partnerships through the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the GEF’s Early Action Programme. Joyelle Clarke also invited the international partners to come together and assist St Kitts and Nevis to work on creating resilience and sustainability.
At the same time, Minister Joyelle Clarke assured the people in attendance that St Kitts and Nevis will attend the upcoming COP16, scheduled for 2024, in Turkey, in a better and stronger position when protecting and preserving St Kitts and Nevis’s rich biodiversity.
Anthony Morris covers stories related to politics and regional developments. His in-depth reporting about governance and reforms makes him stand out in regional journalism, with a deep analysis of political trends and their impact on Caribbean communities.
