Funding important

Given the fact that the Caribbean Climate Outlook Forum (CariCOF) is considered an important programme for the region, an official of the Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology (CIMH) believes that more support and funding should be given to ensure the longevity of the programme.

This is the view of CIMH Principal David Farrell, who spoke with The Barbados Advocate on the sidelines of CariCOF, which took place at the Accra Beach Hotel yesterday morning. Farrell disclosed that this year was particularly challenging for them as they did not have a guaranteed source of funding at the beginning of the year. However, he revealed that thankfully, the US Government saw the importance of such a programme, along with the Barbados MET Office, and through them, they were able to receive funding.

“One of the challenges we have is that if CariCOF is viewed as such an important programme in the region, then maybe we need, as a region, to do a bit more or provide a bit more support to CariCOF. Not arguing at this stage that we should absorb all the cost, but we should start to absorb more of a cost-sharing arrangement to ensure that CariCOF does continue, especially if judging from the discussions here that people view CariCOF as providing information to support decision-making that is significant and important for socio-economic activities in the region, especially in the climate sensitive areas,” he said.

Adrian Trotman, who heads the Caribbean Regional Climate Centre and was also the co-ordinator of yesterday’s forum, noted that the forum began on Tuesday, where they trained 22 regional meteorologists in the art of Seasonal Climate Forecasting.

“Now this is different to weather forecasting. Weather forecasting, you will hear what’s happening over the next few hours, maybe the next day or two, but the training here is different to that. We look at what we can provide information on that could last three to six months in advance,” he said.

“So the World Met Organisation has been guiding the globe towards providing more climate information to support decision-making.”