Fourteen Indicators Identified in Belize to be Used to Monitor Climate Change

Belize is expecting to become one of the trailblazers in the region in climate change policies and strategies. This is one of the conclusions that came out of the three-day environmental workshop that was held under the theme: Generating Climate Change and Disaster Indicators for Policy Decision-making in Belize. Deputy Chief Environmental Officer, Edgar Ek, explains that they have outlined over a dozen indicators that will be used for data collection and construction of methodologies that will assist policymakers on how to make the best decisions to mitigate climate change. He adds that the indicators can also be used in the Caribbean to monitor climate change once they are finalized.

Edgar Ek, Deputy Chief Environmental Officer, DOE: “We did an evaluation in here on those ones and finally the stakeholders decided that fourteen of them are of relevance to the country and for which data is also available. In a way we are surprised because we were expecting that it’s not going to be that much indicators. Even the facilitators are really excited to see that we are looking at those fourteen so there’s a lot of expectation for us to develop those indicators and this could be in fact a model for the Caribbean to look at those indicators once we build them. Part of the activity is to build that capacity to develop the methodological sheets. So what we’re discussing right now is how we construct those methodological sheets, how do we represent the information. There are certain technicalities that goes along with it and so we’re learning about that so that whenever we present that information the policy makers could greatly understand the information we’re presenting and they could make a decision whether it’s policy, whether it’s strategies, whether it’s plans whatsoever they will have that scientific information for them to make that decision.”