As the culmination of the fourth national climate week, the Ministry Of Sustainable Development also convened its inaugural national climate finance forum today. A number of guests from public and private sectors attended to engage in discussions on accessing funding aimed at reducing climate related vulnerabilities in Belize. Here are the highlights from that event.
Orlando Habet, Minister of Sustainable Development
"The climate finance forum therefore provides a hub for dialogue and partnership, our goals today are for one present Belize's updated climate objectives, particularly the targets within NDC 3.0 so partners understand our priorities and can align support and to showcase success stories like community adaptation projects and outline out pipeline of climate resilient investments, 3 hear from regional and international financiers about funding windows, expectations and evolving instruments such as blended finance, guarantees and carbon markets. 4 to develop actionable pathways for matching Belizean project ideas with capital and technical assistance that they require. So this is not just a listening exercise it is a working forum where we hope to forge partnerships, identify obstacles and commit to moving projects forward. We will discuss the economic realities of climate change aligning of finance with adaptation and lessons learned in accessing funding."
Abil Castaneda - Executive Officer P.A.C.T
"As a locally led adaptation action the building community resilience via transformative adaption project which is 5 year, 5 million US dollar initiative funded by the adaptation fund this program is more than just funding it is about empowering our people safeguarding our forrest, our water, our livelihoods from the threats of droughts, floods unpredictable weather and of course wildfires which we all are becoming to familiar with. This project is a promise to our communities that they will not face these challenges alone. And that we will work in building their capacities the critical infrastructure and the systems to be effective in this fight against climate change."
