St Kitts and Nevis, Grenada and the Turks and Caicos Islands showed 4 percent growth, due to improved tourism arrivals and increased tourism related construction, while the region’s economic powerhouse Trinidad and Tobago grew by just 0.2 percent due to weaker oil and gas prices.

That’s according to the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB)’s Economic Review for 2015 and Outlook for 2016, delivered on Wednesday at its headquarters in Barbados.

The report struck familiar themes and again pressed for urgent, meaningful policy reform in the region that includes labour market reform, private sector led-growth, deeper regional integration and governments to act primarily as efficient regulators.

“We could say that 13 of the 19 borrowing member countries (BMCs), we would expect them to grow faster in 2016 than in 2015, but two of our stronger credits Trinidad and Tobago and Suriname will experience negative growth in 2016. Interestingly all of the service…

North of Saint Lucia during 2015 drought. Islands are bracing for prolonged droughts and more intense storms. | Photo: teleSUR

Saint Lucia is one of many Caribbean countries building on the 2015 Paris Climate Talks by promoting climate change adaptation and mitigation, in a disaster-prone region.

The small island nations of the Eastern Caribbean are already reeling from the impacts of climate change. In recent years, the countries have experienced more intense storms, longer and harsher droughts, and more frequent floods—disasters that claim lives and take a toll on their economies.

Sustainable development officials are hoping to build on the buzz created from the 2015 Paris Climate Talks and are taking the climate change message to communities across the country.

RELATED: Young People at Heart of Caribbean Development Strategy

They want young people in particular to take up the mantle. Youth leader Snaliah Mahal says the youth of the Caribbean…

Caribbean audiences are up for a musical treat, thanks to a new album set for release later today, under the ‘1.5 to Stay Alive’ campaign.

The campaign — the work of Panos Caribbean; the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre; the Saint Lucia Ministry of Sustainable Development, Energy, Science and Technology;the Caribbean Development Bank, the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States; the Regional Council of Martinique — has supported the region’s negotiating positions prior to and during the recent climate change talks held in Paris in December.

Throughout, the focus has been on ensuring that global temperatures are limited to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, given the catastrophic climate risks  — including sea level rise and extreme weather events — to the small island developing states of the region.

With Caribbean players succeeding in having the 1.5 capturedas one element of the target in the outcome document from Paris, the ongoing…

Through its role as a Centre of Excellence, the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) supports the people of the Caribbean as they address the impact of climate variability and change on all aspects of economic development through the provision of timely forecasts and analyses of potentially hazardous impacts of both natural and human-induced climatic changes on the environment, and the development of special programmes which create opportunities for sustainable development.

The Five C’s, as the Centre is called, coordinates the Caribbean region’s response to climate change. Officially opened in August 2005, the Centre, based in Belize, is the key node for information on climate change issues and on the region’s response to managing and adapting to climate change in the Caribbean.

It is the official repository and clearing house for regional climate change data, providing climate change-related policy advice and guidelines to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Member States through…

The Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) Tuesday announced that it has launched a competition that seeks to identify successful cases of climate-smart practices in the Eastern Caribbean.

It said the “Climate Smart Agriculture: Stories from Farmers in the Eastern Caribbean States,” is open to organizations in Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

IICA said that participating stories must demonstrate their contribution to the three objectives of climate-smart agriculture: increasing productivity and food security, fostering processes for adapting to climate change, and reducing agriculture’s greenhouse gas emissions.

“Entries should focus on the resilience aspect of their stories and should document the benefits of increasing the productivity of agricultural systems and of mitigating gas emissions.

“The objective of this competition is to document and disseminate success stories, particularly those at the farm level, which have the potential of being…

The Inter-American Development Bank Group will hold its annual meeting in Nassau, The Bahamas, on April 7-10. Economic and financial leaders from its 48 member countries will discuss key development challenges for Latin America and the Caribbean on issues ranging from the global economic slowdown, private sector investments, energy sector diversification, sustainable urban development, the potential of creative industries, and natural capital as a line of defense against climate change, among others.

Representatives of other development agencies, commercial banks, companies and civil society organizations will also attend the gathering. The event will mark the 57th annual meeting of the IDB Group’s Board of Governors, the Bank’s top decision-making body. Most governors are ministers of finance or the economy, or central bank presidents.

The IDB Group is made up of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the Inter-American Investment Corporation (IIC) and the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF). All of the IDB’s private…

Over 70 local and regional entrepreneurs and innovators are currently benefiting from training in product and business development skills under the Caribbean Green Tech Start-up Boot camp.

The programme, which is an initiative of the Caribbean Climate Innovation Centre (CCIC) aims to identify and support Caribbean entrepreneurs and new ventures that are developing locally appropriate solutions to climate change mitigation and adaptation.

The boot camp which started on Friday (February 26) is scheduled to be completed on February 28.

Participants are being exposed to the rudiments of developing a start up team and are being given advice on market access and marketing of their products.

They will also have the opportunity to network with peers and industry experts from the energy sector.

At the end of the 54 hour intensive boot camp, participants will be empowered with the skills and tools relevant to start sustainable and innovative, green technology businesses.