The Hon. Vaughn Miller, Minister of the Environment and Natural Resources is pictured (seated centre) with participants and facilitators at the Bahamas Capacity Building Increased Transparency Workshop at Breezes Bahamas.
Climate change and the war on carbon, are fights that The Bahamas must engage in at the highest level, said the Hon. Vaughn Miller, Minister of the Environment and Natural Resources at the opening session of the Bahamas Capacity Building Increased Transparency Workshop (CBIT).
“We must endure and we will succeed, with your help, expertise and the help of almighty God. The Government of The Bahamas, through the Department of Environmental Planning and Protection (DEPP) is implementing this first CBIT project with the primary objective of improving our data collection for greenhouse gas inventory, Nationally Determined Contributions tracking, climate change mitigation assessments, determining support needed and accounting for support received.”
The CBIT project, he said, also promotes “establishing a sustainable system, reporting to the UN on climate change and other environmental matters, and finally, documenting the evidence that will drive a science-based policymaking agenda.”
The Minister looks to the Department of Environmental Planning and Protection (DEPP), coordinators of the workshop, to do their part to assist in development of data-based policy.
The training focuses on the Low Emissions Analysis Platform (LEAP) modeling tool, the software for which was developed by the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI).
The four-day workshop was opened March 18, 2024 at Breezes Bahamas.
Minister Miller sounded an appeal for data-driven policy decisions.
“We can only do [this] when we have built the capacity among our stakeholders to provide the relevant information.
“We have reporting requirements under the Paris Agreement. DEPP, the Government needs your cooperation to ensure that we are able to meet our commitments on time. This transparent reporting will continue to make the case for a global emissions reduction strategy getting us to net zero by 2050. It will also strengthen the basis for a Vulnerability Index to be used instead of relying on the skewed per capita assessments to determine access to funding.
“We all have a horse in this race and I wish you every success for the next four days…. I applaud the efforts of the DEPP and SEI in assisting us.”
From: Bahamas Information Services
More photo highlights below:
Participants are pictured at the Bahamas Capacity Building Increased Transparency (CBIT) Workshop.The Hon. Vaughn Miller, Minister of the Environment and Natural Resources is shown speaking.Rhianna Murphy, Director, DEPP, is pictured (seated in front row) with other participants.
