The UN Global Environment Outlook is anchored by a contribution from Saint Lucia’s Minister for Sustainable Development, Hon. Dr. James Fletcher.
The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) has published a Global Environment Outlook (GEO) for Small Island Developing States (SIDS) to ensure that the community of SIDS has a voice in the UNEP Global Environment Outlook and also to serve as an input into the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals.
The UNEP Global Environment Outlook for SIDS focuses on four central island themes: the blue-green economy; technology leapfrogging; priority to island community and culture; and reconnecting with nature. According to the Executive Director of UNEP and United Nations Under-Secretary-General, Mr. Achim Steiner, the report provides options for a SIDS sustainability policy framework to help individual SIDS consider future policies that best respond to their needs.
The GEO SIDS report contains valuable empirical data on environmental indicators and socio-economic indices, as well as case studies on selected Small Island Developing States and a review of national policies, actions and initiatives in the three SIDS regions—the Caribbean, the Pacific, and the Atlantic, Indian Ocean and South China Sea (AIMS) regions.
The 52-page SIDS Global Environment Outlook is anchored by a contribution from Saint Lucia’s Minister for the Public Service, Sustainable Development, Energy, Science and Technology, Hon. James Fletcher, on the development of a sustainable energy program in Saint Lucia through effective partnerships. In this piece, which is the only contribution from a SIDS Government official featured in the publication, Saint Lucia’s Minister for Sustainable Development speaks of the multi-pronged approach his Ministry has taken to develop the country’s renewable energy resources and the coalition of development partners it has enlisted to help it implement this strategy.
The SIDS GEO report may be accessed online at: http://www.uneplive.org/media/docs/region/59/GEO_SIDS_final.pdf