OECS Environment and Sustainable Development Ministers to meet in SVG

A number of important issues, including climate change will be discussed when the ninth meeting of the OECS Council of Ministers on Environmental Sustainability convenes in St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) from May 31 to June 2, 2022.

Minister of Tourism and Sustainable Development, Carlos James told the Agency for Public Information (API), that it is important to have conversations about environmental sustainability and protecting the environment especially with the impact of climate change.

The Sustainable Development minister said, “I can speak to the importance of… for example, expanding our cruise tourism and dealing with the issue of waste and how do we deal with waste both onshore and off shore, we talk about the issue of climate change and our vulnerabilities”.

James said, “the environmental sustainability component ties into how we react to our climate, our soil… ridge to reef, how we deal with our waste disposal, our water management, desertification, biodiversity it’s a broad spectrum of sub groupings which captures within the whole element of environmental sustainability”.

The Chair of the Council of Ministers is rotated on an annual basis in alphabetical order and this year St. Vincent and the Grenadines has assumed the role as chair and host of the 9th Meeting of the Council of Ministers: Environmental Sustainability.

The first day will feature an opening ceremony and a meeting of technical officers; the ministers will meet on the second day, and on day three there will be a tour along the leeward coast and a trip to the Soufriere Volcano observatory at Belmont.