fp Turks and Caicos

The Turks and Caicos Islands could be in line for more funding to fight the effects of climate change under a proposed programme to target U.K. overseas territories.

The Department for International Development (DFID); the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO); the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA); and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) are seeking consultants to design the programme.

“This programme will fill a gap identified in recent reviews of current climate change programmes which show that the overseas territories are not eligible to benefit from some programmes, and those which they can access do not fully meet their needs,” the Ministry of Environment and District Administration said in a Feb. 3 press release.

The terms of reference for the consultancy note that the U.K. government recently created the £2.9 billion International Climate Fund, but that overseas territories don’t appear to be able to get funds because they are not in priority spending categories.

Consultants are asked to consider and recommend three possible approaches for making more money available to the territories:

• “Approach 1: A truly joint HMG programme. This would mean that government departments agree on the programme itself and put their budgetary contribution towards it into a joint pot.
• “Approach 2: A programme that mirrors the model of the International Climate Fund (ICF) for the OTs. Programme priorities and eligibility criteria are firmly agreed between all parties, decision making happens in a cross-Whitehall high level board and implementation is taken forward by the different departments. In the case of the £2.9 billion defined as ICF spent, DFID is in charge of implementing £1.8, DECC of implementing £1 billion and DEFRA £100 000.
• “Approach 3: A programme that would be better defined as “HMG umbrella strategy” and follow the HMG collaborative approach of implementing the OT Biodiversity strategy. HMG departments would agree on a joint strategy for implementing climate change related activities in the territories. Delivery of the strategy would be up to each and every department, which could use their individual delivery mechanism. The commitment to the overarching strategy would help government departments to justify their spending in implementing it and give them the flexibility to bring their spending closer in line with their own objectives.”

Most of the U.K.’s 14 territories are small islands that are vulnerable to the effects of climate change, such as sea-level rise; changing distribution of carriers of disease; increased incidence of hot days; changes in rainfall patterns; more acidic oceans; a change in the incidence and intensity of extreme weather events; storm surge; flash floods and tropical cyclones.

The effects on territories can be severe because their most of their economies depend on only a few sectors, such as financial services, tourism and fishing.

“The impacts of climate change in the (territories) are a potentially huge contingent liability, which will fall to the U.K. taxpayer (it is important to consider the costs and impacts resulting from direct and indirect impacts including wider security, migration, pressures on resources),” the terms of reference state.

“Consequently it is in the U.K.’s interest to ensure that the (territories) have access to funding and/or expertise in order to take action to prevent, mitigate and/or adapt to such impacts and to promote low carbon growth.”

The consultancy has a start date of Feb. 20 and is due for completion May 31.

Click HERE to read the terms of reference