WESTERN BUREAU:
WITH THE World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) less than a week away, the island's delegation said Jamaica would push for eight major national priority issues to be addressed.
The WSSD, slated for Johannesburg, South Africa from August 24 to September 7, will critique what progress countries around the globe have made since the action plan on sustainable development (known as Agenda 21), was hammered out at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The Sustainable Development Unit at the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) indicates that among the eight national priorities are poverty, climate change, illegal drugs, HIV/AIDS and natural disasters.
Charmaine Selvyn of the Sustainable Development Unit said Jamaica would place on its agenda at the upcoming meeting, the need for urgent measures to curb the devastating effects of climate change on sea level rise, in small island states.
Ms. Selvyn said "the impact of sea level rise on the tourism industry can be profound, if it results in increased beach erosion."
Also echoing the need for greater attention to climate change, Franklyn McDonald, Executive Director of the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA), said global climate change issues were pertinent to Jamaica and should be acted upon with alacrity.
"We in the Caribbean are in hurricane-prone island states and if we have larger and stronger hurricanes and more frequent larger and stronger hurricanes, then our economies just can't be made sustainable," he said. "These are really life and death issues for small island states," Mr. McDonald said.
He said Jamaica's national report to the WSSD was a consensus document that outlined proposals for dealing with physical, social and economic vulnerabilities facing the island.
Environment Minister Horace Dalley will also be batting for the needs and interests of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) to be given due consideration at the upcoming World Summit.
Noting that small islands were taking the lead in implementing sustainable measures, Mr. Dalley said he would be advocating for a more radical approach.
"We small islands have 45 votes (at the WSSD) and our voices can be heard," Mr. Dalley said, adding, "I think we need to collaborate more. We have been able to get our positions in now, but I think there has to be more co-operation."
Professor Al Binger, Director of the University of the West Indies (UWI) Centre for Marine Sciences, told The Gleaner that a list of recommendations from SIDS that would be going to the WSSD include a target by small island nations of a 10 per cent reduction in the use of petroleum by the year 2012, as well as the goal of January 2003 for the start of disaster reduction projects for SIDS, and the insistence of special market access for products from SIDS.
One of the three representatives from non-government organisations (NGOs) who will be participating in the WSSD is Wendy Lee, President of the St. Ann Environment Protection Association.
Ms. Lee said she would be advocating for the need to stem the misuse of resources and the continuing environmental degradation facing the island and the world in general.
- EJK
