(CDB) Héla Cheikhrouhou, Executive Director of the Green Climate Fund, presented the 15th William G Demas Memorial Lecture yesterday at the Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of the Caribbean Development Bank. The lecture addressed the topic “The Green Climate Fund: Great Expectations.”

Speaking one week after the Green Climate Fund’s Board successfully reached agreement on essential requirements for commencing initial resource mobilization, Cheikhrouhou outlined how regions such as the Caribbean could work with the Fund in the future to adapt to the impacts of climate change and move towards a low emissions economy. She also recognized that although Caribbean nations have contributed little to the release of the greenhouse gases that drive climate change, they will pay a heavy price unless bold actions are taken on a global scale to stabilize the climate.

Cheikhrouhou stated that the impacts of climate change were already being felt in the Caribbean, and pledged the Fund’s support to help move developing countries towards a climate-resilient and low-emissions development pathway. Highlighting the vulnerability of Small Island Developing States, she also emphasized the region’s potential for clean energy and its jump-start on climate finance readiness activities. While she acknowledged that expectations upon the Fund are very high, she expressed her satisfaction that the Fund was on-track to open its initial capitalization and start supporting the fight against climate change.

“I think that we surpassed the expectations of many in reaching agreement about so many issues,” stated Cheikhrouhou. “Looking ahead, this will enable the Fund to become the preferred climate finance partner of developing countries as they move towards a sustainable future.”

The Green Climate Fund (the Fund) is a new multilateral fund that was agreed by Parties at the 2010 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change conference held in Cancun, Mexico, and designated as an operating entity of the Convention’s financial mechanism. The Fund’s Governing Instrument was developed and approved in 2011. The Fund’s purpose is to promote, within the context of sustainable development, the paradigm shift towards low emission and climate-resilient development pathways by providing support to developing countries to help limit or reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and to adapt to the unavoidable impacts of climate change.

The Caribbean Development Bank’s Annual Meeting takes place on May 28 and 29, 2014. It brings together Ministers of Finance from the Region along with Governors of Central Banks, economists, executives and academics to discuss issues that are of concern to the Bank’s Borrowing Member Countries.