Adaptation measures ridiculous - St Vincent minister

Claudia Gardner, Hospitality Jamaica Writer

Minister of Tourism of St Vincent and the Grenadines Glen Beache has poured cold water on suggestions by industrialised countries that Small Island Developing States (SIDS) like the Caribbean should take measures to adapt to climate change.

In an interview with Hospitality Jamaica last week, the minister said the onus is on those countries with the largest rate of carbon emissions to curb their harmful practices in order to curtail the climate change phenomenon. He also frowned upon suggestions that steps should be taken to retreat from the islands' coastal zones.

'CUT OUT THE RUBBISH'

"The people who are the causes of climate change need to cut their rubbish out and be more sensible and more sensitive to what's going on in the world. You can always take measures that might lower any sort of damage, the fact is that most of the Caribbean countries' developments are on our coastal areas," he said. "Most of the developers want something close to the beach."

ST VINCENT IS NOT THAT BIG

"A country like St Vincent and the Grenadines is not that big in the first place. You can't go very far inland because you will affect your freshwater systems. The bigger countries who want to preach to you and tell you to do this and to do that, they need to be cognizant of what is going on in the world and accept the responsibility for what has taken place because of a lot of the business that they condoned have caused the problem and so, they should make some changes. You can't only just look at the smaller countries and expect miracles to take place."

He added: "The problem I have with a lot of the bigger countries is they come with these solutions for all the smaller countries and when they were developing, they were doing exactly the same thing; but now that they have already become developed, they want to preach to the less developed counties on what they should do. It is ridiculous."

But Deirdre Shurland, chair of the Caribbean Alliance for Sustainable Tourism, says it would be in the best interest of the region that new developments especially, refrain from building too close to the coastline.

no excuse

"Especially for new buildings, there is no excuse now for being right on the beach," Shurland said. "The risks now are too great and even though developers will always tell you they have factored in some level of risk in their property design and management, it is not only a question of their property, because what happens at that local level may have an impact on the beach down the coastline. So, responsible tourism development now requires adequate setbacks. The laws are all there. It's just a question of enforcement of the laws."