OBJECTIVE OF THE MEETING
The United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and The Partnership in Statistics for Development in the 21st Century (PARIS21) are synergising efforts to better equip Caribbean countries to develop climate change data ecosystems for more effective reporting and evidence-based climate actions. This event will bring stakeholders from Statistical Offices and Ministries of Environment of Caribbean countries to discuss the assessment and strategic capacity development of their climate change data ecosystems (CCDEs).
The subregional event will adopt a hybrid format with face-to-face sessions for country representatives and virtual participation of regional and global experts on climate change data.
The objectives of the meeting are to:
- Understand better the critical climate change data capacity development areas that enable a coherent and sustained functioning of a climate change data ecosystem in low-resource and low-capacity contexts
- Identify emerging good practices in the Caribbean region and promote knowledge sharing
- Showcase new innovative tools developed by ECLAC to promote sustained technical capacity building for climate change and environment indicators
SETTING THE SCENE
The Caribbean region needs urgent actions to mitigate and adapt to climate change. It has already experienced extensive coastal erosion, more frequent and severe tropical cyclones, sea-level rise, increasing temperatures and changing precipitation patterns damaging its population´s well-being.
The complexity of this climate crisis demands a data-driven response at global, regional, national, and local levels. Countries not only need high quality data to monitor, report and analyse changes in climate, they also need data to inform and accelerate mitigation and adaptation actions.
In response to this, various countries in the region are already working to strengthen the production and use of quality climate change data to inform decision-making by developing environment and climate change statistical compendia[1] and putting in place data platforms[2].
Despite these efforts, development is sporadic and uneven, and there remain critical challenges to maintain and further develop current initiatives. Lack of coordination within the national statistical system and with the broader data ecosystem, including civil society, academia, and the private sector, established data-sharing protocols, sustained resources and strategic capacity development for climate change data are among the most pressing issues in the region.
The subregional event will provide an opportunity to find trends and granular details about the above challenges with the aim of developing guidance and methods to contribute to overcoming them.
ECLAC´s CONTRIBUTIONS TO STRENGTHENING CLIMATE CHANGE STATISTICS AND INDICATORS IN THE CARIBBEAN
The ECLAC´s Statistics Division works to promote the generation and use of internationally comparable, accurate and timely statistical information in the region. Through its Environmental Statistics and Climate Change Unit, and in collaboration with the Sustainable Development and Human Settlements Division, ECLAC is supporting eight[3] Caribbean countries to develop new climate change and disaster indicators using national data to enhance implementation of the SDGs, the SAMOA Pathway, the Paris Agreement, the Escazú Agreement, the Sendai Framework, and the Revised St. George´s Declaration (SGD 2040).
PARIS21´S APPROACH TO ADDRESSING CLIMATE CHANGE DATA CHALLENGES
PARIS21 has as core goal to make progress towards better data for sustainable development. Among its strategic outcome areas, PARIS21 aims to develop a systems approach to climate change data, as outlined in the paper “Envisioning a climate change data ecosystem - A path to co-ordinated climate action” to unlock climate change data for more effective reporting and climate action. In this line, PARIS21 hopes to build on existing efforts and discuss progress towards developing a CCDE assessment framework to help countries advance in a strategy to mainstream coherent climate change data into policy action.
ECLAC-PARI21 JOINING FORCES
Considering their shared synergies and common goals to promote cross-border cooperation and enhance knowledge and capacities to support countries in addressing crucial challenges, ECLAC and PARIS21 would like to join forces and hold a subregional on 23 August 2022. This will be targeted to Caribbean SIDS to share experiences, showcase recent tools and developments on climate change data and statistics, and further discuss the ongoing work on climate change data ecosystems development.
TARGETED PARTICIPANTS
Participants will be 2 delegates by country for each of the 13 Caribbean ECLAC´s member states, 1 from NSO and 1 from the Ministry of Environment, at director general / secretary general level. There will be 26 participants in total.
[1] Grenada, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Jamaica, and Suriname
[2] Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Saint Lucia, and Suriname.
[3] Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Suriname.
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Presentations and other materials are available HERE
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Programa
