Above: St Lucia

By the Caribbean Journal staff

St Lucian Minister Dr James Fletcher is urging CARICOM Heads of Government to step up their level of action on climate change issues.

Fletcher, who is St Lucia’s Minister for Sustainable Development, Energy, Science and Technology, recently returned from the Warsaw Climate Change Conferene.

“The Caribbean, I believe, has not demonstrated the level of commitment and coherence in addressing Climate Change as have our pacific neighbours,” he said. “We did very well for a while when Grenada chaired the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS). There was definite leadership coming from the Caribbean. I think some of that leadership has been lost and there is a lot we have to do at our level.”

He urged the region to make climate change “the subject of greater discussion within our Cabinets and at the highest levels of our government,” saying he did not believe that “all of our policy makers understand the repercussions of Climate Change.”

What’s needed, he said, is for more discourse with the public on the issue, which could affect the Caribbean region more than any other in the world.

“We are also not having enough of that conversation with members of our public,” he said. “The members of the public are not seized of the importance and urgency of Climate Change. [And] that’s where I think the regional response needs to kick in.”