BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – The European Commission Executive Vice-President for the European Green Deal, Frans Timmermans, will begin a visit to three Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries on Monday to discuss with government and other stakeholders the upcoming COP28 UN Climate Change Conference.
According to an EU statement, Timmermans will have a working dinner with Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley on Monday and participate in a tour on climate resilience and vulnerability hosted by the government on Tuesday.
The statement said that the tour would include a visit to the Home Ownership Providing Energy (HOPE) project that offers affordable, energy-efficient, hurricane-resilient homes for first-time homeowners, as well as a visit to Walkers Reserve, a sand quarry undergoing a regeneration process into a natural reserve.
The EU recently launched the EUROCLIMA in the Caribbean at the Walkers Reserve, the climate-related flagship program of the EU.
Timmermans will also hold discussions with officials from the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), the Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology (CIMH), the University of the West Indies (UWI), as well as with the local community and representatives of the Barbados Coastal Zone Management Unit (CZMU) and the Department of Emergency Management (DEM).
From Barbados, Timmermans will travel to Guyana, where he will meet with the CARICOM Assistant Secretary-General Ambassador Donna Forde and government officials before concluding his visit to Suriname.
The EU statement said that the visit aims to strengthen the engagement between the EU and the Caribbean region ahead of the Paris Summit for a new Global Financing Pact, June 22-23, and the EU-Latin America and Caribbean Summit scheduled for Brussels, July 17-18.
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