NEW YORK, JUNE 27 – The Italian Ministry for the Environment (MASE) is currently on a technical-institutional mission to New York at the headquarters of the Permanent Mission of Italy to the United Nations. The agenda includes meetings today and Wednesday 28 June with the joint committees joint (JC) with the Small Island Developing States Pacific Islands (PSIDS) and, later, with the countries of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).
The MASE collaboration with the Small Island Developing States of the Pacific Islands started in May 2007, when the first Memorandum of Understanding was signed in New York. (https://www.mase.gov.it/pagina/isole-del-pacifico)
Today, 18 partners participate in the programme, including 4 donors (Italy, Austria, Luxembourg and Spain) and 14 beneficiaries (Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Micronesia, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Solomon Islands, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa , Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu). More than 45 projects have been approved since 2007 for a total budget of over 20 million dollars.
The JC meeting slated for Tuesday 27 June in New York is therefore a new and important opportunity to strengthen collaboration with the Small Pacific Island States, and move along the dialogue path by resuming annual meetings and to highlight the current environmental priorities of the Small Islands towards a sustainable blue economy, promoting effective strategies for the management, protection and conservation of coastal ecosystems and the responsible use of marine resources.
The first meeting of the Joint Committee is scheduled for Wednesday 28 June in New York, as part of the new Agreement on Sustainable Development signed between MASE and 9 CARICOM countries: Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Lucia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Belize, Dominica, Guyana, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Haiti).
As part of the previous MoU, 20 projects were approved for a total amount exceeding 16 million dollars, mainly focusing on the promotion of renewable energies and energy efficiency, prevention and early warning systems for extreme natural events, strengthening integrated water systems and water desalination. Future projects and activities will focus on mitigation and adaptation measures.
The meetings underway this week will focus the adoption of the Agenda and the approval of the framework documents Rules of Procedure of the Joint Committee and the Bilateral Committees (RoP) and Guiding Principles for the Cooperation Mechanism (GP). Also bilateral technical roundtables are scheduled to facilitate an exchange on future activities. (@OnuItalia)
