Climate Change and its economic impact on the marine and coastal sectors of the Virgin Islands will be discussed. Photo: noaanews.noaa.gov.

A press release from the Government Information Service (GIS) disclosed that the training workshop is based on an economic study conducted on the Territory to determine the cost impacts of climate change under the Review of the Economics of Climate Change (RECC) Project being coordinated by ECLAC.

The objective of the May 18 to 19 training is to build capacity among local stakeholders in the econometric modelling used in the study so that there is a cadre of local professionals empowered to update the study and conduct the analysis, the GIS release added.

Representatives from the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Natural Resources and Labour, the Development Planning Unit, the Town and Country Planning Department, the Department of Disaster Management, the BVI Fishing Complex, the National Parks Trust and the Conservation and Fisheries Department are expected to be in attendance.

The two-day training will be conducted by Troy Lorde, a Professor of Economics at the University of the West Indies who has been hired by ECLAC as a consultant for the RECC project. He will be accompanied by Charmaine Gomes, Coordinator of the Sustainable Development Unit at ECLAC, to facilitate the training exercise.

Agenda items include modelling climate change impacts on the coastal and marine sector and associated costs as a result of changes in temperature, precipitation, extreme weather events and sea-level rise. Additionally, participants will learn about costing adaptation options.

This week’s training in The Virgin Islands follows the Fourth High Level Advisory Committee Meeting of the Review of the Economics of Climate Change in the Caribbean which was held in Port of Spain, Trinidad in April 2011.

At that meeting, research findings for The Virgin Islands revealed that climate change impacts will cost the coastal and marine sectors approximately US$20– 32 billion dollars by the year 2050 depending on the climate change scenario. The research findings were based on a detailed econometric model that considered the economic value of the Virgin Island’s coral reefs, beaches, their services and the fishing and tourism industries.

Reporting on the Territory’s participation in preparation for that meeting, Climate Change Coordinator for the Virgin Islands Ms. Angela Burnett Penn said, “The Virgin Islands has been doing a lot of work to understand, measure and plan our response to climate change impacts, including producing a climate Change Adaptation Policy and Strategy that will shortly be set before Cabinet for approval.”

She added, “The results of the RECC project add another critical element to our work. Such economic assessments, grounded in hard data and science, will give policy makers tangible information upon which they can base decisions and actions that will help us minimise these losses by responding now.”

ECLAC is in the final stages of implementing the RECC Project.