The FirstCaribbean Worldwide ComTrust Basis and CCRIF SPC (previously the Caribbean Disaster Threat Insurance coverage Facility) met this week to have a good time the Basis’s donation of US$75,000 to assist improve rainfall monitoring techniques and catastrophe preparedness within the Caribbean and one other US$5,000 to print and disseminate further copies of CCRIF’s kids’s publication on “Hazards, Disasters and Local weather Change”, developed for kids ages 8 to 12 years outdated.
The grant of US$75,000 might be used to allow at the least 4 Caribbean international locations to enhance their climate monitoring networks by including automated climate techniques and different gear to their present networks.
These new automated climate techniques (AWSs) will improve these international locations’ early warning techniques and their capacity to higher put together for hydro-meteorological occasions similar to hurricanes and extreme rainfall occasions all year long.
These techniques can also inform longer-term planning. AWSs can incorporate a variety of sensors that may present knowledge to allow nationwide meteorological providers to undertake extra detailed and dependable evaluation of local weather tendencies to tell nationwide methods on local weather change and catastrophe danger administration.
Chairperson of CCRIF’s Technical Help Committee; Isaac Anthony, Chief Government Officer; and Leslie Gittens, Enterprise Growth Specialist on the ceremony commemorating the donation from FirstCaribbean Worldwide Comtrust Basis to CCRIF.
The FirstCaribbean Worldwide ComTrust Basis is a registered charity which was established in 2003, to help CIBC FirstCaribbean’s neighborhood relations programmes. The Financial institution makes contributions to causes inside the Caribbean within the areas of Well being & Wellness, the Group & the Atmosphere, and Youth & Training.
Since its inception in October of 2002, by the ComTrust Basis, CIBC FirstCaribbean has donated greater than US$30M to worthy tasks throughout the Caribbean. This donation from the ComTrust Basis will help an present initiative at the moment being carried out by CCRIF that focuses on offering a lot wanted help to its member governments to reinforce their AWS networks.
In 2020, CCRIF labored with the Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology (CIMH) to undertake a situational evaluation to find out if there have been present gaps in rainfall measuring networks of its member governments and the extent of those gaps.
In response to Isaac Anthony, CCRIF’s Chief Government Officer, “The Situational Evaluation, which assessed the rainfall measuring community of 19 of CCRIF member governments, indicated that solely 5 Caribbean international locations have over 70 per cent of the really useful degree of AWS protection. The minimal protection was 10 per cent of optimum protection, the utmost was 90 per cent of optimum protection, with a median of 40 per cent of optimum protection throughout the international locations”.
Having reviewed the report, the CCRIF Board took the choice to supply help underneath its Technical Help Programme to member international locations within the area to strengthen their community of automated climate stations (AWSs).
CCRIF additionally reached out to the FirstCaribbean Worldwide ComTrust Basis based mostly on the objectives of the Basis to find out if this was an space that they’d be keen to supply help for. The remaining is historical past! To this point, CCRIF has assisted 4 international locations (Belize, Antigua and Barbuda, Turks and Caicos Islands, and Cayman Islands), offering them with roughly US$250,000 in help to enhance and develop their rainfall knowledge assortment and measurement techniques. These assets from the ComTrust Basis will help an extra 4 international locations to develop their rainfall monitoring networks.
CCRIF will match these assets from ComTrust to help one other 4 international locations within the area. By the center of 2024, 12 international locations within the Caribbean would have further AWSs and enhanced rainfall measuring networks, which is able to assist governments to higher put together their populations within the face of the growing frequency and depth of hydro-meteorological hazards.
CIBC FirstCaribbean’s CEO, Mark St. Hill, who additionally serves because the Chairman of the ComTrust Basis, famous: “Our financial institution is dedicated to sustaining robust environmental requirements and to conducting our actions in an environmentally and socially accountable method that contributes to long-term worth for our shoppers, staff, communities, and our shareholders. Local weather change has been partaking our area for a while, and our financial institution has established itself as a number one monetary associate for stakeholders searching for to deal with the problem. We actively search to help the Caribbean area’s transition to a lowcarbon financial system and advancing of sustainability and local weather resiliency initiatives within the territories through which we function.”
The “Hazards, Disasters and Local weather Change” booklet permits kids to study in regards to the several types of hazards that have an effect on the Caribbean; actions to take earlier than, throughout and after these pure hazard occasions; local weather change; and tips on how to maintain our pure setting.
Since its first publication in 2021, CCRIF has distributed over 2,000 copies to colleges, ministries of schooling, catastrophe preparedness and administration businesses, public libraries, and civil society organizations all through the area.
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