ST. JOHN’S, Antigua, CMC—Government Antigua and Barbuda officials are among the 100-plus delegates attending the Euroclima Annual Meeting in La Antigua, Guatemala.
The country officially joined Euroclima in November 2023, following the European Union’s expansion of the 15-year-old Latin American-focused Programme to include the Caribbean region, with a launch event in May 2023.
The Euroclima Programme implements demand-driven actions to improve resilience to climate change in ecosystems and vulnerable communities, including women, youth, and indigenous populations. It achieves this by strengthening institutions, enabling frameworks, plans, and policies, and securing financial investments linked to developing and advancing national climate change targets.
The Annual Meeting provides networking and dialogue on ways to successfully advance work in several areas, including Green Hydrogen, Water Management, Sustainable Transport, Sustainable Energy, Biodiversity, Circular Economy, and Sargassum.
On the first day of engagement, participants received updates on the program’s current actions, including helpful information on success stories that could help inform best practices for replicability and implementing various initiatives and partnerships.
OECS country representatives, as well as delegates from the wider Caribbean Community, explored potential and planned joint actions to address approaches to the circular economy regarding Sargassum and non-revenue water.
It is expected that the concept documents and terms of reference for the initial work to address issues related to non-revenue water – which is defined as water that has been produced and is “lost” before it reaches the customer – will be concluded in short order to allow for swift action in addressing this area of concern.
A main element of the discussions over the 3-day annual meeting will be the EU Global Gateway Investment Agenda (GGIA), which aims to accelerate the implementation of a just and green transition through the identification and facilitation of investment opportunities in Latin America and the Caribbean, in the case of Euroclima.
Even in these early stages, the outlook for the Caribbean region’s involvement in Euroclima shows much promise, and in-country consultations are planned to better understand the gaps and challenges and consider them in the design of impactful actions.
Euroclima is jointly funded by the EU and the German Federal Government via the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.
and then 