 Hello and welcome to TV30, a production of the Government Information Service. My name is Jesse Leans, Information Assistant at the Department of Sustainable Development. The Caribbean Corporative MRV Hub, that is Measurement, Reporting and Verification Hub, 2023 annual meeting and the Biennial Transparency Report, BTR Work Plan Workshop will be held in St. Lucia next week and in studio with me to speak a little bit about that activity those activities as well as a little bit more about the MRV Hub in particular is Ms. Denise Joseph representing the MRV Hub here on Island. Good day to you Ms. Joseph. Thank you so much for joining me. Thank you Jesse for having me. Wonderful. So before we get into the events, if you for the benefit of our viewers could just give us an understanding of what the Caribbean Corporative MRV Hub or Measurement, Reporting and Verification Hub is all about and how it applies to its participating countries. Okay, thanks Jesse. So the Caribbean Corporative Measurement, Reporting and Verification Hub or MRV for short is an organization that has been developed over the past five years. So we received a grant from the German government to support 12 member English speaking countries, Caribbean countries that is to help them with guidance, training and capacity building as it pertains to carbon accounting, modeling and projections and other stuff related to greenhouse gas emissions. And so that's what we do at the Caribbean Cooperative MRV Hub. We have a team of experts that help the 12 member countries going from Bahamas all the way down to Guyana, the English speaking Caribbean with their greenhouse gas inventories with their reporting requirements as it pertains to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change or UNFGC. Wonderful. And so when we hear information about measuring research in general, reporting, verification, that information is usually for the technical mind. But if you could break it down for us and help us to understand how these modalities, how these modes of research and so on can be applied to various sectors of various causes that St. Lucia is currently involved in. Okay, thanks Jesse. Let me see if I can do that to the best of my abilities. So with measurement and reporting and verification, what we do at the Caribbean Cooperative Hub, we more or less, countries have been doing it all along. So countries have been doing their inventories over the past few years. St. Lucia, for example, has done four inventories so far, that's greenhouse gas inventories. What has happened now with the Paris Agreement, and I think we all know about the Paris Agreement, we have more reporting requirements. So we're now required to do our inventories every two years. And so that would put a strain on the human resources of the countries in the region. And so that's where the hub comes in place. We've developed a team of Caribbean experts who have the knowledge, the understanding of the national circumstances in the various countries. And so they're helping those countries develop their greenhouse gas inventories to assist in data collection and modeling and projections as it pertains to our nationally determined contribution, which is our NDCs, that all countries have to submit as part of the Paris Agreement. With measurement, we more do data collection. And so we support countries in understanding what data is required to be able to do the accounting itself. So for example, we do estimation of emissions for the energy sector, which includes energy generation, the transport sector, we need to collect data on the various aspects of the transport services to see what kind of emissions are being released per country in the region to meet our reporting requirements. So these are some of the things we help the countries with. We provide them with guidance documents. We support them in their know-how. We do trainings on workshops for and invite the technical experts in the countries to join in those workshops and understand all the requirements that need to be met as part of the new Paris Agreement. That's been put in place. Okay, so looking at what's in the Paris Agreement, speak to us about the input that has been provided to and the support that has been provided to St. Lucia specifically through the MRV Hub. We know that there are several projects ongoing. You spoke to the nationally determined contributions. Speak to the value specifically that it has had the resources, resource support that has been provided has had for St. Lucia. Okay, so with the establishment of the MRV Hub, St. Lucia has benefited greatly with that organization. So we've had a number of our technical experts in the government of St. Lucia be trained in the different areas for the greenhouse gas inventories. So you have areas such as energy, you have the industrial processes and product use, you have agriculture, you have waste, and you have land use, land use change and forestry or more or less the forestry area. So we've had a number of our technical experts in the government of St. Lucia trained in those areas and a lot of them are now on the UNFCCC website as listed as experts in the region. And so they can go on, do reviews for other countries, develop themselves even further. And so what the hub is there to do is to build up that capacity within not only St. Lucia, I know Jesse said about just focus on St. Lucia, but within the Caribbean and also help the Caribbean technical experts share best practices, share lessons learned because although we know that we have differences among the Caribbean, but we do have similarities as well. So it's important that we share those lessons learned, share our mistakes, our obstacles that we face, because sometimes most of the time they're almost the same obstacles that are faced in most of the countries. Okay, wonderful. So speak to the significance of having, I mean the benefit of having in a cultural context of having St. Lucia experts, having Caribbean experts being able to test research, look at the information that they're getting from St. Lucia in terms of as you indicated emissions and what have you and be able to make determinations from that. Okay, so a lot of our countries, well in the region, we've hired consultants from overseas to come in to do our estimations for us because most times they have the knowledge and the know-how. Building up our Caribbean experts, we more or less mitigate the area where we have to explain to them our national circumstances, we have to explain to them what goes on in the country, we have to explain to them what kind of data we collect, why is it difficult for us to get some of the data, what are the attitudes of the people in the region and why it is that people do certain things that they do. How does the government services function in the region? So all these aspects we need to, we as Caribbean experts, we have that knowledge and so that it makes it easier. So for example, just explaining to a foreigner how our bus systems work is a difficult task all by itself. Having experts in the region who are able to write it, to explain it on paper, to the international forum that this is what goes on in our country, this is how we operate, this is what we think is best for our country as well. And it also helps you to define policies that are relevant to the countries and not policies that are just copied or paste from European or American states. So it's our own developing, our own expertise in more or less a sense. Okay, wonderful. What is the latest news coming from the MRV Hub? I know we're coming to the annual meeting and a little bit about the workshop happening in St. Lucia next week, but what else is outstanding in terms of achievements, milestones, particularly in 2023? Okay, so in 2023 the MRV Hub is actually coming to the end of its grant. So we're establishing the organization because as part of the grant we're supposed to establish an organization with an aspect of sustainability. In all of this we also have a number of programs going on. So we do have our summer academy which we've had for the past three or four years, I believe, where we train, as I said, we train experts in government on greenhouse gas inventories. We are now extending it to the private sector because we believe that involving the private sector is just as important as the government workers. Having the private sector understand what's going on, having the general public understand what is going on, what is required from the government service, well the government officers to report in those areas. What is COP all about? Why do we make such a first for climate change? This is why it's important to bring in as many people as possible. So we have involved the private sector in our summer academy that's coming up. In addition, with the modern and projections program which I lead or head, we have a webinar series coming up starting from May 24th, going till June 28th where we introduce different tools to the Caribbean. So we introduce different modeling and projections tools that the technical officers can use. We've brought on the developers for the different tools and they will be speaking about the different tools and areas where they can help the technical experts in the countries develop those areas. And we as the Caribbean Cooperative Measurement Reporting and Verification Hub, we stand in the background to support the countries in whatever area that they need. In addition to all of this, we've developed a number of guidance documents. So guidance documents, they're basically reports or documents to guide technical officers on how to collect certain data, how to do certain reporting, how to do certain analysis. So we've developed a number of guidance documents related to the waste sector, related to data collection for different tools for modeling and projections, related to the transport sector as well in developing the emissions. So that's what the MRV hub is all about, building capacity in the region and showing that we have the technical experts because it's a continuation of building capacity. It's not just one expert being the know-all. We want to make sure that we in the region, we can do the necessary estimations and train others as well because you need to maintain that sustainability. Every two years is not an easy task. We have people moving on, going to universities, going on to further jobs. It's important that we continually build our capacity and be able to keep meeting out, well keep on meeting our requirements to the international forum. Okay, we are speaking to Ms. Bernice Joseph from the MRV hub and we are talking all about monitoring, reporting and verification, measurement sorry reporting and verification hub as well as the events that will be happening next week here in St. Lucia from the 24th to the 27th of April here on Ireland and you mentioned that the project is coming to an end but will it really be the end? So we are due for a break when we come back we hear more from Bernice. The world's climate is changing and that affects all of us. Storms are becoming increasingly intense. Periods of intense drought and heavy rain stress farm animals and destroy our cross. Higher average ocean temperatures kill our coral reef and change the migratory patterns of fish. St. Lucia contributes only 0.0015% of global greenhouse gas emissions but is doing its part along with countries around the world to reduce the emissions that are warming our world and changing our climate. These efforts are called mitigation but decades of emissions have already changed the climate and the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere today will increase average global temperatures even more. We need to adapt that is do everything we can to prepare for and respond to the actual unexpected negative effects of climate change and everyone has a role to play. We need to protect our crops build homes that withstand storms and keep our drains and waterways free of garbage to help us recover or bounce back from climatic events. Learn more about the government of St. Lucia's national adaptation plan and the steps you can take to protect yourself and your fellow St. Lucia's. Thank you so much for staying tuned to TV 30 next week the 24th to the 27th of April 2023 St. Lucia will play host to the Caribbean Cooperative MRV Hub 2023 annual meeting as well as the Biennial Transparency Report Plan Workshop. I'm speaking to Ms. Benise Joseph from the MRV Hub and she has been speaking to us a little bit about the project MRV Hub measurement reporting and verification hub providing expertise in those three areas for St. Lucia in being able to go forward to international agencies making its case being able to develop reports on its own within the region about what our particular circumstances are here in the region as it pertains to climate and other environmental matters. So Benise you indicated before we went to break in speaking about the MRV Hub that the project itself will be coming to an end. Does that mean the end of this degree of support for the participating countries? Well not in a sense so with the MRV Hub the project itself so the funding from the German government is coming to an end but what we hope to do is continue to support countries in their areas of capacity building but we also during the project what we've gathered from countries we've received direct contracts from countries to help with the reporting requirements as well and so that's where the Caribbean MRV, the Caribbean Cooperative MRV Hub is going to continue to be there to support countries and continue building the capacity until it reaches a place where countries can do it by themselves. So part of the project was to build a sustainable organization that can continue helping countries and this is what we've done so far. Okay and I would imagine that this week's annual meeting would encompass that sort of transition, provide some insight into that. Speak to us a little bit about the annual meeting that's happening next week in St. Lucia, the Caribbean Cooperative MRV Hub annual meeting, the fifth annual meeting and what it would constitute in that sense. Okay so the annual meeting is twofold so we have a workshop previously to start off the annual meeting and then we have the annual meeting itself so I can speak to the workshop first and then talk about the annual meeting which is the following two days. So the first two days is the workshop where we have training on biennial transparency work plan so what countries are doing they're moving from a biennial update report to a biennial transparency report which is under the Paris Agreement and so this workshop is going to help countries develop that work plan in time for the reporting requirements for the BTR so that's where we have training, continuing our capacity building and helping with technical officers develop that capacity and we're working directly with another organization and so this is going to happen on Monday and Tuesday. How do the two reports differ? So the biennial update report was previously under the UNFCCCC Convention and it had GHA inventories mitigation assessment and other aspects involved in it. In the biennial transparency report countries are now required to basically report on the updates for the nationally determined contributions so what have you done where have you reached for your national determined contribution in addition to that they do have to report on the greenhouse gas inventories and also there's some aspects on adaptation where countries have to report on so it's an all-encompassing report which is different to the previous biennial update report. Understood so that would take up the workshop component. Yes so that's a workshop component we're using a tool that has been developed by PAKPA and FAO and so they will be using we will be supporting countries whilst they help use that tool develop themselves and be able to develop that work plan in time for the biennial transparency report requirement dates which are which begins in 2024. Okay understood and then the annual meeting tell us about that. And so the annual meeting is our fifth annual meeting and every year we bring in all our technical well our representatives from the different countries the technical officers that we've been dealing with in the different countries we do have sorry a steering committee that's representative of the different countries as well the steering committee basically guides the MRV hub in the work that they have to do so the MRV hub doesn't work on itself we are guided by countries the countries guide us on where they need help where they need us to work in and so that's where the steering committee comes in. So this annual meeting it's about sharing what we've done more or less what we're doing here so we're going to be sharing what the hub has done so far with our country partners what we've done over in the region what is to come in the next coming months and in the next years and how do we move forward and how do we transition to an organization without the grant support that we've been receiving over the past five years so this is what the annual meeting is about it's also an opportunity for countries to share best practices to share lessons learned and to meet each other as well because we work in silos we work virtually a lot of most of the time and especially since covid it's good to get out and to meet your your counterparts in the other countries as well with the annual meeting in addition what we try to do is it's an area where we can get direct feedback so not only just hosting a virtual meeting but we have country representatives right there in person and they tell us where they need help where they want us to to work so we're guided by them as well so we provide guidance but the guidance is provided by the countries to provide guidance to the countries absolutely and speak to us a little bit about that what what are some of the support systems that are required I mean overall you provide a cadre of services but speak to us about what the participating countries usually require of the MRV hub so thanks Jesse again with the countries most of the times what we get feedback on is that the human resources we are small islands we very much lack human resources and that's where the most countries need the support the additional human resource the additional guidance on what it is that is required by the international organizations this is where countries usually ask the MRV hub to to to provide that support in addition to this the MRV hub is also providing support in terms of being able to store data countries have access to the data that's readily available to them we do have an issue where data is sometimes lost in our small island developing states it could be that it's not properly stored it could be that we've had a hurricane that has destroyed everything so the the MRV hub is more like a backstop in that sense where we provide that support to two countries as well and further on we do help them understand what is required in the reports and how sometimes you do all those technical analysis and you see those documents and probably you you're not able to understand what's in the document itself so that's where we come in to try to explain to the countries what is it that you're looking for how to assess some of those the work that's been done by different consultants over the the areas so that's where we are providing guidance to the countries in the these different areas wonderful just diving a little bit deeper into the annual meeting any specific any experts any body coming in to to engage any notable figures we do have so the the Caribbean Cooperative MRV hub is funded by the German government but we do have three other partners so we have the greenhouse gas management institute and we have the UNFCCC regional climate change office that's in Grenada and we have the wind ref which is hosted in Grenada as well and so with these three agencies we do have Michael Gillen Water who's the executive director of the greenhouse gas management institute he will be coming into for this meeting we have Myra Santelia I believe that's the name she will be coming into that meeting as well she is the representative from the UNFCCC at the regional office we do have representatives from the organization of Eastern Caribbean states joining our meeting we have our program director Wiley Barber who's coming in to support the meeting he's always there and he's such a fun character to have around us well and we have Carlos Esos who's from Patpur who's going to be supporting with the first two days of the workshop as well we do have other persons coming in from greenhouse gas management institute to more or less learn support and help out with the the overall organization of the workshops okay wonderful I want to touch a little bit on some of the lessons that have been learned just coming out of being able to receive this degree of support from the MRV hub speak to us speak to us a little bit about how much better equipped how far the participating countries have come since the impact of the MRV hub in the region and also looking at some of the requirements that are that are at the UNFCCC level looking at the Paris agreement the the requirements for data research are increasing particularly with every single negotiation that happens there comes you need to prove it you need to prove what you're trying to negotiate for so speak to us about the significance of that thanks Jesse and I think that's a wonderful that question is an excellent question in terms of data and understanding the the importance of data how we can get the data how we can fill in the data gaps that we have as well the Caribbean the MRV hub has been able to to help countries significantly in that area and we have countries coming back and asking for support so once you do a good job people usually come back and ask for support so that's what we have happening with the MRV hub so we have countries requesting that kind of service from the the MRV hub to help in in understanding the data storing that data and having that data in a useful way as well some of the the other trainings that we've done just to to mention some of them so for example for the modeling and projections program we've introduced an asynchronous training where persons are able to to learn the software and do it on their own time with their own well at their own pace as well and what we found that we've had over 80 percent of the completion rate were women and normally in the energy sector in modeling in that technical area you don't find a lot of women engaging in that area and so it's just been tremendous well I guess it it's just been well I guess we've been proud the fact that we we can actually reach that demographic because you find that sometimes women with children they want to be able to do work on their own they probably don't have time to come to a workshop or you have a series going on these are the aspects that the MRV Hub has been able to to delve in so understanding what's going on in the region understanding how to program our training to fit our people in the region how they schedule what they do and this is this is extremely important and and we've been having success rate on the different levels well extraordinary levels related to that wonderful thank you very much Beniz Joseph it's all the time we have for now Beniz Joseph from the MRV Hub speaking to us about the upcoming Caribbean Cooperative MRV Hub annual meeting that will be taking place here in St. Lucia and it will be preceded by the workshop that's a biennial transparency report workshop that will be happening on island bringing together the participating countries here under one roof on island in St. Lucia from the 24th to the 27th of April 2023 my name is Jesse Leans it has been a pleasure speaking and and getting a little bit more information from you on what will be transpiring this regional activity next week in St. Lucia do stay tuned for more programming on NTN it's all the time we have for now goodbye thank you