After two false starts and eight years of delays, the government has launched a required review of the 2012 Virgin Islands Climate Change Adaptation Policy.
The results could prove a stark reminder of broken promises.
When it launched in 2012, the policy was hailed as groundbreaking. It laid out dozens of targets aimed at preparing the territory for the mounting impacts of climate change.
But in the years since then, successive governments have missed most of the policy’s deadlines, and the trust fund meant to bankroll the initiatives has not yet gotten off the ground.
Now, officials are again promising progress. The climate fund, they say, will be launched internationally in November at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Brazil. And before that, they plan to complete the delayed review, which is now under way with a series of stakeholder consultations on the 2012 policy and how to update it.
The ongoing consultations are invitation-only and closed to the media, but government intends to hold public meetings eventually, according to Angela Burnett Penn, the director of environment in the Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources and Climate Change.
Delayed review
The 2012 climate-change policy calls for a “public review” of the document within five years of its publication to “determine its effectiveness in achieving its goals and objectives” and to “update the policy based on the findings of the review and best practices at the time.”
In 2016, the National Climate Change Committee — which is now headed by the ministry and co-chaired by the Premier’s Office — first began this review process, Ms. Burnett Penn said.
“We actually had a report done in 2016 that demonstrated the actions that have been taken in preparation for the policy being updated in 2017,” she said.
However, the process came to a halt after Hurricane Irma hit the territory.
“That set back the process quite a bit,” she said.
The next attempt to restart the review process was stalled by the Covid-19 pandemic, according to Ms. Burnett Penn.
Now, eight years after the five-year update was initially intended to take place, the process has begun yet again to review and update the policy.
As part of that effort, internal consultations began last year, and stakeholder consultations started last month across the private and public sectors, according to Ms. Burnett Penn. During an Aug. 19 meeting for the tourism sector, Ms. Burnett Penn explained the review process.
“We first do internal government consultations with relevant agencies, and then we’re going outside of government for these [private- and public-sector] consultations,” she said.
Despite the policy’s requirement for a “public review,” no public meetings are currently scheduled to get feedback from the community at large, according to Ms. Burnett Penn.
She told the Beacon that the committee intends to carry out a general consultation for the wider public in the future, but for now the stakeholder consultations are being held across the sectors covered in the policy.
These sectors include beach and shoreline stability, coastal and marine ecosystems, forestry and biodiversity, and fisheries; tourism; insurance and banking; food security; agriculture; human health; critical infrastructure, human settlements, and water resources; and energy.
So far, consultations have been held for the tourism and insurance-and-banking sectors, Ms. Burnett Penn said.
Though the Aug. 19 consultation for tourism stakeholders was advertised on the government website, consultations with other sectors are not being advertised publicly. Instead, invitations have been sent to individuals and to groups such as industry associations.
Next steps
Ms. Burnett Penn said the committee intends to complete the consultations in time to submit a document to Cabinet “over the course of September.” Once completed, three documents covering the review and update will be tabled in the House of Assembly and made public, she added.
“There’ll be the implementation report that would have shown how we’ve implemented the 2012 policy; there’ll be the updated policy itself; and then the third document is the implementation strategy that supports the policy — so this is where the compilation of projects will be put together,” she told the Beacon.
Climate fund
The 2012 policy’s targets included establishing the Climate Change Trust Fund “to fund the effective implementation” of the policy.
But this goal, like many others, was delayed.
The fund was established in 2015, but its coffers then sat empty for a decade while successive governments failed to pass legislation needed to fill it with taxes raised from an environmental levy collected from tourists since 2017.
In May, however, government announced that the fund will be operationalised this year and launched internationally in November at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Brazil.
The move should bring an initial influx of about $6 million to the independent body, finally filling its coffers with eight years’ worth of tourist taxes that were earmarked for the purpose by law but never handed over.
More missed targets
The climate fund goal is not the only major target that was missed.
For example, the policy calls for government to “develop, approve and start implementation of a National Sustainable Tourism Development Policy and Master Plan within the next two years.”
Those two years came and went with no national tourism plan or policy in sight — and the public is still waiting as government promises the strategies later this year.
Also delayed was a policy goal to pass an Environmental Management and Conservation of Biodiversity Bill, which leaders have promised for more than 20 years without ever tabling in the House of Assembly.
The 2012 policy also called for a national drainage plan, as well as the creation of a National Museum and Historical Site Management Board and a Museum Development and Promotion Policy.
Completed goals
Other goals in the policy have been accomplished.
Measures in keeping with the targets include the 2020 VI Beach Policy; a 2022 beach management plan for Long Bay, Beef Island; a recycling programme; a national energy policy that calls for boosting green energy; work to climateproof some public buildings, and others.
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