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T&T took a sig­nif­i­cant step to­ward cli­mate re­silience yes­ter­day, host­ing the Na­tion­al Mul­ti-Haz­ard Ear­ly Warn­ing Sys­tem (MHEWS) Fo­rum at the Hilton Trinidad and Con­fer­ence Cen­tre. The event, themed “Build­ing a Re­silient Trinidad and To­ba­go Through a Com­mu­ni­ty-Cen­tred Na­tion­al Ear­ly Warn­ing Sys­tem”, brought to­geth­er key stake­hold­ers to fi­nalise a new strat­e­gy de­signed to pro­tect cit­i­zens against es­ca­lat­ing en­vi­ron­men­tal threats.

The fo­rum marks the cul­mi­na­tion of two and a half years of col­lab­o­ra­tive work be­tween the In­ter-Amer­i­can De­vel­op­ment Bank (IDB), the Of­fice of Dis­as­ter Pre­pared­ness and Man­age­ment (ODPM), and the To­ba­go Emer­gency Man­age­ment Agency (TEMA), with sup­port from the Em­bassy of Japan. Its core pur­pose is to dis­cuss the find­ings of a na­tion­al di­ag­nos­tic as­sess­ment and green­light a long-term in­vest­ment plan for the MHEWS.

Lau­ra Ro­jas, IDB’s Dis­as­ter-Risk Man­age­ment Unit Chief, was present at COP30 and gave Guardian Me­dia some in­sight in­to the fo­rum in Trinidad. She said, “The pur­pose of the meet­ing is to dis­cuss the re­port and the plan to move ahead with the in­vest­ments.”