'Climate change partnerships a must'

Dr Christopher Castro, assistant professor in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Arizona, United States (US), reminded Jamaicans recently that climate change is not a matter of the future. According to Castro, climate change is "already happening". However, Jamaica, although not a major emitter of greenhouse gases, can adapt and take measures to mitigate the negative impacts.

Castro was speaking during a two-day visit to Jamaica on October 12 and 13, funded by the US State Department's Strategic Speaker Initiative Programme and coordinated by the US embassy's public affairs section.

"We will be resilient and think our way out of this," said Castro. The students discussed what could be done at the individual and national level, with one suggesting the increased use of bicycles and legal restrictions on the import of motor vehicles as a solution to the problem of vehicle emissions.

Jamaica's climate change negotiator, Dr Jeffrey Spooner, lecturers and graduate students, as well as representatives of the Meteorological Service, held a technical meeting with Castro hosted by the University of the West Indies' Department of Physics. This was followed by a public lecture in the department on how to improve climate change projections and environmental monitoring in the Caribbean.