The Minister for Environment of Dominica, Kenneth Darroux, has been lobbying for funds to be made available to Dominica and the rest of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) by the global climate change agency to implement climate change related projects.
The minister, who is just back from attending a global change climate change agency meeting in Belize, took the opportunity to voice Dominica’s needs as it pertains to climate change issues including adaptation and mitigation.
“This meeting was a very enlightening meeting for me and a very successful one because it gave me the opportunity to really see that we, in Dominica and the OECS sub-region by extension have really not benefited much from these funding,” Darroux said.
The minister said he was able to convince the meeting that the OECS sub region should be included in the budget of the climate change agency.
“Coming out of this meeting, I also got the opportunity to converse, to meet on a bilateral basis with the European Commission. I expressed my concern to them as to the absence of Dominica and, like I said, other OECS countries in terms of funding for projects. Right now, they are nearing the end of their fiscal year so it is going to be a bit too late to really try to get anything done. But they promised, apart from the funding made available to the Global Change Climate Agency (GCCA), that the European Union itself is going to include the OECS countries and potential projects in their coming financial year,” he explained.
The minister said his ministry will seek to write appropriate projects that will be considered for funding by the GCCA.
When they get it they will only give it to the people that vote for them
He attended the meeting and didn’t learn a thing about how their existing projects could be applied in Dominica – a land once blessed with 365 rivers most of which have been reduced to ravins.
He didn’t learn how the region would be affected by rising sea levels or ocean acidification as a result of climate change.
What he did learn however, was that there was funding….and that Dominica and the OECS had not been awarded funding.
Considering we label trash cans as contributing to ecotourism instead of conservation and sustainability for which it stands.
I would be intrigued to see or hear of his proposal to the EU – yes we need the money, but we have hardly mastered conservation and sustainability to ask for money on global climate change.
With European Union members experiencing financial breakdown how are we going to show we are making a concerted effort if we lack natural resource management, have inadequate waste management and a non existent solid waste treatment procedures- basic but key elements which influence the effects on the environment.
Seriously, he should have been ashamed.
When New Moore Island in the Sundarban disappeared in 2010 due to rising sea levels and the remaining islands continue to face flooding and sinking…it says a lot when a Minister of Environment comes away from an environmental discussion to only report to the nation that we are missing out on funding. From an environmentalist perspective it makes me question his passion for our environment and our nation.
Mr. Darroux you are bing duped. All of the climate change going on right now is being orchestrated by the people that control everything.
Time for that problem at the ECU to be fixed. The Minister seems to want to do what is right by the environment, give him realistic control of the Environmental Unit..
Kenneth Darroux should lobby for funds to assist the people of Layou with their health concerns. The environment Minister, a medical doctor, supported the building of an ASPHALT PLANT close to Layou , against the wishes and protests of the entire community. The villagers protested and pleaded to Planning Division and Govt. to rethink their position, but to no avail. That Asphalt Plant spews tons upon tons of POISONOUS, CANCEROUS FUMES upon the people. The community is extremely worried that because of those pollutants from the Asphalt plant reigning down on them, their health is seriously deteriorating.
The medical doctor, Minister of environment, must be aware of those dangers to the people’s HEALTH. But Alas, he and his Govt. chose to side with the BIG BUSINESS man to build that facility, totally ignoring the health concerns of the villagers. Are the Layou villagers being told to ADAPT to that kind of pollution? How are they going to MITIGATE against that irresponsible action? Does the Minister care at all about the negative effects on the health of an entire community?
Don’t include the ECU because it is a family affair
I think Lloyd Pascal and his team doing a good job given the financial and human resource constraints which they have to work with…