EU extends its climate collaboration in the Caribbean to the Dominican Republic

The European Union has extended its climate collaboration to the Dominican Republic. Through the European program EUROCLIMA+, which works on environmental sustainability and climate change in Latin America, the country will join 15 other Caribbean countries that are expected to join in the coming months.

The incorporation has been celebrated with a workshop whose main objective has been to analyze the priority actions of the Dominican Republic. These actions have been proposed to support the fulfillment of the Dominican Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), and are focused on strengthening disaster management preparedness in the processes of emergency response to forest fires, the increase of electric vehicles in the public sector and the design of a pilot project for the incorporation of 130 electric buses in vehicle fleets of public and private entities.

Dominican authorities from the Ministries of Environment and Natural Resources, Presidency and Economy, the National Council on Climate Change, the National Emergency Commission and the National Institute of Transit and Land Transportation participated in the assessment of the actions. Representing the EU were the EU Delegation in the Dominican Republic, the FIIAPP and representatives of Spanish public institutions that will work on the actions: the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge, and the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda.

The head of the Cooperation section of the EU Delegation, María González, highlighted that “the transition towards low-carbon economies and climate resilience contribute to eradicate poverty and promote an equitable distribution of resources, but this requires the joint effort of all sectors of society”.

The integration of the Dominican Republic into EUROCLIMA+ represents the culmination of a previous trajectory of exchanges between the Dominican Republic and the European Union on climate action, which until now had taken place through dialogue forums with peer institutions in the region that had public policy agendas shared by EUROCLIMA+.

The Dominican Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, in coordination with the National Council on Climate Change, will be the technical focal point in this collaboration, while the Ministry of Economy, Planning and Development will play the role of national focal point.