Dr Jimmy Fletcher, Alumnus of the prestigious UK Chevening Scholarship scheme and former Minister for Sustainable Development in St Lucia, has during the past week travelled around the Eastern Caribbean and delivered insightful presentations on the contributions made by the region towards agreements to limit the growth of greenhouse gases.

He spoke to Alumni and other interested parties in St Lucia, Barbados, St Kitts and Nevis and Grenada on the importance of climate change to the vulnerable countries of the Eastern Caribbean on the Paris Agreement. This was reached at the Conference of Parties (or COP 21) in Paris in 2015, where the majority of the global community agreed to take steps to limit the rise of global average temperatures and to tackle the effects of already unavoidable climate change.

Having represented St Lucia and the region, Dr Fletcher was able to share his unique take on the Paris Agreement and the Caribbean. As he explained, the countries of the Eastern Caribbean and the UK played their part contributing to the overall global effort in restricting the impact of climate change.

He observed: ‘It is important to spread the message about climate change and its impact on the Small Island Developing States in the Caribbean and elsewhere in the world’.

The enthusiastic audience was enlightened by Dr Fletcher’s presentations and energetic Q&A sessions showed the high levels of interest and knowledge of this issue.

The presentations come just after the British Government has launched its Clean Growth Strategy aimed at reducing greenhouse emissions, and ahead of the next round of negotiations at COP23 in November.

The presentations were organised by the British High Commission, together with the Chevening Alumni Associations of each island.