BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – European Commission executive vice-president for the European Green Deal, Frans Timmermans, will visit Barbados from 12-13 June, to discuss with government representatives, stakeholders and civil society the path towards the upcoming COP28 UN Climate Change Conference and to look for common ground for action on urgent climate issues.
Upon his arrival in Barbados on 12 June, executive vice-president Timmermans will have a working dinner with prime minister, Mia Mottley. On Tuesday 13 June, he will participate in a tour on climate resilience and vulnerability, hosted by the prime minister and in the presence of minister of foreign affairs and foreign trade, Kerrie Symmonds.
The tour will include a visit to the HOPE Project (Home Ownership Providing Energy) 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. It is at Walkers’ Reserve that the EU recently launched EUROCLIMA in the Caribbean, the climate-related flagship programme of the EU, now active in the region. The tour with the prime minister will end in the community center in Bathsheba on the East Coast, where a press conference will be held.
Executive vice president Timmermans will continue to Martins Bay to exchange views on the challenges and opportunities of climate adaptation, including Sargassum. He will engage 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). The visit to Martins Bay will showcase past and current support for Disaster Risk Management actions, by visiting EU-funded Early Warning Systems in place and discussing how these systems are making a difference at the local level.
From Barbados, executive vice-president Timmermans will travel to Guyana where he will meet with CARICOM assistant secretary-general ambassador Donna Forde, as well as government officials in Guyana, before concluding his visit in Suriname.
Ahead of the Paris Summit for a new Global Financing Pact on 22 and 23 June and the EU-Latin America and Caribbean Summit scheduled for Brussels from 17 to 18 July, this mission is a step towards the further strengthening of engagement between the EU and the Caribbean region.