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Today, the Government of Belize, the United Nations Development Program, and the Japanese Government launched a program called the Japan-Caribbean Climate Change Project. It’s an ambitious initiative where the Japanese Government is donating 16 billion US Dollars to 8 CARICOM Nations to try to reduce the negative effects that climate change has on agricultural and sustainable development in these countries.

Belize is one of those 8 nations, today, the Japanese Non-Resident Ambassador to Belize, who is stationed in Jamaica, flew in for the launch. We spoke with the coordinators of the initiative to find out how they’re tailoring it to fit the needs of this country.

Dr. Colin Young - CEO, Ministry of Sustainable Development
"Today we're here to do the national launch of the Japan Climate Caribbean climate change project. This is a multi-country project between the government of Japan and CARICOM countries. Belize is one of those countries. We have St. Lucia, we have Suriname, we have Guyana and its 15 million dollars US that is being shared across this project. In Belize the government of Belize has decided that the funds that are earmarked for Belize would be used to cover areas in climate change governance to help us govern the way we manage and plan climate change as well as sustainable agriculture in alternative livelihoods at the community level as well as water resources management."

Yoko Ebisawa - Japan-Caribbean Climate Change Partnership
"This is a regional project and we covered 8 CARICOM countries and we support the countries for different climate change issues including the climate change adaptations as well as the climate change mitigation. Also we would like to support the countries to develop the policy document of the climate change adaptation and mitigation. In addition we also would like to have some pilot project at the community level."

H.E Masanori Nakano - Japanese Ambassador to Belize
"I hope that this project will contribute a lot immensely to the mitigation and prevention of the climate change."

The other 7 countries which will benefit from the program includes, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Lucia, St Vincent & the Grenadines, and Suriname.