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Deryck Omar, Chief Executive Officer of the CARICOM Regional Organisation for Standards and Quality (CROSQ),

CROSQ explores energy sustainability and climate change

The myriad spin-off effects of climate change are being felt on small island developing states across the region. As such, the CARICOM Regional Organisation for Standards and Quality recently hosted a webinar to explore energy sustainability and climate change and the subsequent implications for countries in the region.

Delivering opening remarks at the recent webinar, Deryck Omar, Chief Executive Officer of the CARICOM Regional Organisation for Standards and Quality (CROSQ), noted that the session would serve to show firsthand how CROSQ can and is assisting in the fight against climate change and in the uptake of sustainable energy.

 

“This  webinar is entitled Energy Sustainability and Climate Change: What are the Implications for the Region. Climate change is a popular and frequent term that is used all over the world. I am sure that most of us here if not all, have an idea what climate change is and that is caused by the emission of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, brought about by the consumption of fossil fuels, for example coal, oil and gas amongst others and  countries are called to urgent action to address the effects of these,” Omar noted.

 

“The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change defines the phenomena  as a change of climate that is attributed either directly or indirectly to human activity, that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and that is in addition to natural climate variability that is observed over comparable time periods,” he added.

 

“So what else do we know? We know that the rate of global warming caused by climate change is unsustainable and that the effects can be seen in new adverse weather patterns, such as severe flooding, drought, increases in the intensity of hurricanes, warming of the oceans and increased sea levels, all of which threaten our very existence as small island developing states. These events have necessitated commitments to international  agreements such as the Paris Agreement ( a legally binding international treaty on climate change),” Omar further commented.

 

For the Paris Agreement, he noted that its goal is to limit global warming to well below 2, preferably to 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels. He further stated that for many countries who have signed on to this and other agreements, the focus is on the reduction of traditional energy use, in favour of more sustainable renewable energy efficient technologies.

 

To date, CROSQ has been doing its part to fight climate change, by working to fulfil its mandate of developing a regional energy efficiency building code, by developing energy efficiency labelling standards and Minimum Energy Performance Standards for electrical appliances; as well as developing energy efficiency labelling standards and minimum energy performance standards for light industrial appliances. CROSQ has also been hosting a number of webinars exploring topics in keeping with its mandate and bringing greater awareness to the need to be more sustainable going forward.

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