The Belize-based Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) Wednesday said it has been approved for membership in the Santiago Network that aims to catalyse technical assistance for developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to climate change impact.
The CCCCC said membership in the Santiago Network is also a recognition of its demonstrated capacity to deliver ‘coordinated, high-quality technical assistance to CARICOM member states to avert, minimise and address loss and damage arising from the adverse impacts of climate change’
DR. Colin Young
CCCCC executive director, Dr. Colin Young, said that the CCCCC’s membership in the Santiago Network is recognition that it possesses the capacity and know-how to effectively serve as a delivery partner to provide technical assistance to member states in their pursuit to avert, minimize and address loss and damage caused by anthropogenic climate change.
‘With the increasing frequency and intensity of climate related shocks, which invariably increase loss and damage, the CCCCC membership in the Santiago Network, will enhance CCCCC’s capacity to provide timely technical assistance requested by member states,’ Young added.
The Santiago Network, established in December 2019 under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), aims to catalyse technical assistance for developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to climate change impacts. Membership in the Network enhances coordination among organisations, bodies networks and experts (OBNEs) to support countries in averting, minimising and addressing loss and damage.
The CCCCC said that its membership in the Santiago network is one of the few regional OBNEs and underscores the entity’s long-standing role in shaping global responses to loss and damage, particularly for Small Island Developing States (SIDS).
‘This partnership with the Santiago Network, as an OBNE, will strengthen the CCCCC to more effectively channel resources, regional expertise, and capacity to assist member states, while highlighting context-specific solutions and best practices from the Caribbean,’ the CCCCC added.
It said that it would to advance on its mandate to support CARICOM member states in strengthening climate resilience, improving access to climate finance, and deepening regional capacity to respond to the impacts of climate change and loss and damage.
‘At the same time, the CCCCC continues its advocacy role to shape and influence global climate policy processes, including those related to loss and damage, to ensure that Caribbean priorities, perspectives and lived realities are meaningfully reflected in international agreements.’