CCRI Climate Leaders Roundtable - “Now is the time to act and invest”
Pegasus Hotel, Kingston, Jamaica, 5 May 2022
Earlier this month, Jamaica became the world’s first country to launch ground-breaking technology capable of accelerating the resilience of its major national infrastructure to extreme weather events.
As part of a series of events marking the launch of the Jamaica Systemic Risk Assessment Tool (J-SRAT), CCRI held a roundtable providing a valuable opportunity for key stakeholders within the Government of Jamaica, the Coalition and private sector partners to recognise progress to date, interrogate upcoming phases of the pilot project, and discuss opportunities for increasing public and private infrastructure investment and resilience building.
The event featured a special message of endorsement by Senator the Honourable Matthew Samuda, Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, Government of Jamaica.
In his address, Senator the Honourable Matthew Samuda, Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, Government of Jamaica, stated:
“This is a first-of-its-kind tool and Jamaica is proud to have partnered with CCRI and the University of Oxford. We have no doubt that collaborating with the financial sector and having them lead on this initiative will create the space that will allow us to invest in the infrastructure that the country so desperately needs. Because now is not the time to talk, it is the time to act and invest.”
Alan Smith, Chair of CCRI’s Systemic Resilience Forum and Senior Advisor on Climate and ESG Risk at HSBC, added:
“Climate infrastructure is the ultimate and pure unequivocal ESG asset class. There is no greenwashing about it. For investors looking to create a sustainable portfolio, climate infrastructure is one of the fastest growing asset classes in the market."
“What CCRI is doing is not just important to Jamaica, but also setting a model that much of the world will be able to leverage and learn from in terms of how to enable private capital to flow into the infrastructure sector.”
Key takeaways
- Climate change is an existential risk to small island states such as Jamaica, threatening its people with increasing storm intensity every year. However, with early recognition, proper assessment and careful management, these risks can be transformed into opportunity, propelling Jamaica to a position of global leadership when it comes to resilience building.
- J-SRAT provides Jamaica with a first-of-a-kind opportunity to truly step forward and plan appropriately, according to Minister Samuda, allowing Jamaica to tailor its infrastructure investment and optimise its spending to give the country the greatest opportunity not just to survive but indeed thrive.
- J-SRAT has a key role in helping to educate and build national capacity in conducting risk assessment and management of climate resilient infrastructure as a relatively new asset class.
- J-SRAT also features analysis into Jamaica’s Nature-based Solutions and identification of strategies to develop adaptation projects that are financially and operationally viable.
Learn more about J-SRAT here
Those attending the event also included Dr Wayne Henry (Director General, Planning Institute of Jamaica), John Haley (CCRI Co-chair), Carlos Sanchez (CCRI Executive Director), Jim Hall (Director of Research, Oxford University), Diane Edwards (President, JAMPRO), Claire Bernard (Deputy Director General, PIOJ), Don Gittens (Manager, Logistics, Energy and Infrastructure, JAMPRO), David Smith (Managing Director, Smith Warner), Patricia Shako (Climate & Disaster Resilience Adviser, FCDO Caribbean), Lilian Macharia (Director, Green Climate Fund), James Stewart (Jamaica Public Service Company), Sam Davis (Jamaica Public Service Company), Mark Harvey (CEO, Resurgence), Allison Pearce (Ecohydrologist/Aquatic Ecosystems Manager, Smith Warner), Kevin Horsburgh (Climate Science Lead, Green Climate Fund), Ajani Jacobs (NOWAL).
