ST JOHN’S, Antigua – The government says it is stepping up efforts to make communities greener by expanding a nursery and landscaping programme that supplies plants to public buildings and new homeowners.

GEORGETOWN, Guyana – Guyana has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the United Kingdom establishing a strengthened framework for cooperation under the Forest Governance, Markets and Climate Programme (FGMC2) and reinforcing Guyana’s global leadership in sustainable forest management, low-carbon development, and climate action.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – The assistant director-general of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), René Orellana Halkyer, says the future of food, sustainability, and global stability depends on the ongoing 30th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP30)in Brazil being more than a summit.

NAROBI, Kenya – Jamaica’s Minister of Water, Environment, and Climate Change, Matthew Samuda, has been elected as the new president of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA), indicating that environmental matters are no longer an “isolated” agenda item.

BELEM, Brazil – Caribbean agriculture faces an existential crisis as increasingly intense climate events devastate farming communities across the region, experts and development leaders have warned.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – The Barbados Light & Power Company  (Light & Power) has answered the urgent call for assistance from the Jamaica Power Service Company (JPS) following the widespread outages caused by Hurricane Melissa.

CAIRO, Egypt – The Egypt-based African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) Friday said it is making a donation of US$1.1 million to the governments of Jamaica and Haiti to support the recovery efforts following the devastation caused by Hurricane Melissa in October.

KINGSTON, Jamaica – Jamaica’s Prime Minister Andrew Holness said Monday he had used his attendance at the G20 conference in South Africa last weekend to underscore the importance of his country’s presence “both as a nation navigating a recent disaster”, as well as on behalf of the 15-member regional integration movement, CARICOM.

BELEM, Brazil – The 30th Conference of the Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) began here on Monday, with a clear message that the era of half-measures is over and that climate change is real, devastating communities and driving up costs, but solutions are within reach.

KINGSTON, Jamaica – Minister without Portfolio in the Office of the Prime Minister,  Dr. Andrew Wheatley, says the Jamaica government is focused on “building forward” following the passage of Hurricane Melissa that tore into the country on October 28, killing at least 45 people and causing billions of US dollars in damages.

ROSEAU, Dominica – The Dominica government says it will commission its 10-megawatt geothermal power plant next month, as the country continues with efforts to transition to a cleaner, more resilient energy sector.

UNITED NATIONS – The United Nations Tuesday sad that two weeks after Hurricane Melissa first made landfall in the Caribbean, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is reporting that people in Cuba, Jamaica and Haiti continue to rely on government-led humanitarian responses.