On 2 February 2017, UN CC:Learn Ambassador Mr. Daniel Abreu had the opportunity to present progress of the UN CC:Learn project in Central America to Ministers and Vice Ministers of Environment of the eight member countries of the Central American Integration System (SICA). UN CC:Learn was featured at the Meeting of the Council of Ministers of the Central American Commission for Environment and Development (CCAD) in San Jose, Costa Rica.
Mr. Abreu explained that since 2015, UN CC:Learn has supported the joint efforts of the Dominican Republic, Belize, Costa Rica, Panama, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador to build regional capacities to confront climate change issues. In Central America, the UN CC:Learn project builds on SICA’s 2010 Regional Climate Change Strategy and seeks to promote and facilitate the implementation of its climate change learning component through concrete actions.
To this end, UN CC:Learn has compiled and analysed the most relevant climate change learning initiatives developed by SICA countries, identifying national strengths and experiences to share as well as information gaps and other common challenges. The challenges have been discussed and addressed by the eight countries in a joint Action Plan, which is expected to accelerate regional climate change education, awareness raising and civil participation actions between 2017 and 2022.
The elaboration of a video on the vulnerability of Central America to climate change is one of the first activities of the joint Action Plan and is already underway. In San José, the Ministers and other representatives of the SICA countries, contributed to the video by sharing how they see that climate change education and awareness raising can help building resilient communities.
The Ministers also showed their interest and support to the next activities of UN CC:Learn, including a webinar and a workshop on funding mechanisms for climate change learning activities, which will take place in March and April 2017. These activities will help the SICA countries identify funding opportunities for the next phase of UN CC:Learn project in the region.
For more information about UN CC:Learn in Central America, please access here: http://www.uncclearn.org/national-projects/un-cclearn-central-america