With the first major pre-Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) event scheduled to begin tomorrow, Foreign Affairs Minister Paula Gopee-Scoon has declared it was “CHOGM time.” Gopee-Scoon delivered a presentation on the main CHOGM programmes and activities for the rest of the month in T&T at yesterday’s post-Cabinet press conference, at the Diplomatic Centre, St Ann’s. “Well it’s CHOGM time, so that’s all I am going to talk about,” she said. As part of the main events of CHOGM, Gopee-Scoon noted there would be three major forums and a meeting of Commonwealth Foreign Ministers. She would lead the two-day meeting of the ministers, which begins next Wednesday at the Trinidad Hilton and Conference Centre, St Ann’s.

Among the major pre-CHOGM forums is the Commonwealth Youth Forum, titled “Invest in Youth, Sustain the World,” which begins tomorrow in Lowlands, Tobago. Another was the Commonwealth People’s Forum, organised by the Commonwealth Foundation along with Civil Society and Government. It will be opened on Sunday and will include eight assemblies which focus on issues such as human rights, financial crisis and economic development, environment and climate change, gender and health and HIV/Aids. The Commonwealth Business Forum was another major pre-CHOGM event, which would be opened on Monday.

Climate change:
Gopee-Scoon said the draft national climate change policy for T&T was presented to Cabinet and it was referred to Cabinet’s Finance and General Purposes (FGP) Committee. She said it would address mitigation polices that were related to green house gas emissions and adaptation of policies to cope with climate change effects. Gopee-Scoon added that Planning, Housing and Environment Minister, Emily Dick-Forde, would make available to the public the details of T&T’s climate change policies after the draft was approved.