The Caribbean Com­mu­ni­ty Cli­mate Change Cen­tre (CC­C­CC) will com­mem­o­rate its 20th an­niver­sary with a ban­quet and awards cer­e­mo­ny on Wednes­day at the Best West­ern Plus Be­lize Bilt­more Plaza in Be­lize City.

Es­tab­lished in 2005, the CC­C­CC is the des­ig­nat­ed in­sti­tu­tion of the Caribbean Com­mu­ni­ty (Cari­com) re­spon­si­ble for co­or­di­nat­ing the re­gion­al re­sponse to cli­mate change. Over the past two decades, the Cen­tre has played a key role in ad­vanc­ing cli­mate re­silience across the Caribbean.

The cel­e­bra­tion will be­gin with pan­el dis­cus­sions at 1:30 p.m. These ses­sions will ex­am­ine the ori­gins, de­vel­op­ment, and fu­ture di­rec­tion of the Cen­tre, es­pe­cial­ly in light of in­creas­ing cli­mate chal­lenges fac­ing the re­gion.

The event will be at­tend­ed by Heads of Gov­ern­ment, re­gion­al min­is­ters, mem­bers of the diplo­mat­ic corps, de­vel­op­ment part­ners, aca­d­e­m­ic lead­ers, civ­il so­ci­ety rep­re­sen­ta­tives, and pri­vate sec­tor stake­hold­ers. The pres­ence of these groups un­der­scores the role of the CC­C­CC in shap­ing re­gion­al pol­i­cy and col­lab­o­ra­tion on cli­mate change.

Ex­ec­u­tive Di­rec­tor Col­in Young, PhD, said the an­niver­sary is a mo­ment to re­flect on the Cen­tre’s ac­com­plish­ments. “From strength­en­ing wa­ter se­cu­ri­ty and safe­guard­ing coast­lines to un­lock­ing over $200 mil­lion in cli­mate fi­nance for our Mem­ber States, the CC­C­CC con­tin­ues to im­pact lives and liveli­hoods across Cari­com,” he said.

Prime Min­is­ter John Briceño of Be­lize, where the CC­C­CC is head­quar­tered, ac­knowl­edged the Cen­tre’s con­tri­bu­tions. “Since its es­tab­lish­ment in Be­lize in 2005, the CC­C­CC has ad­vanced cli­mate sci­ence, sup­port­ed pol­i­cy frame­works, and mo­bi­lized re­sources for adap­ta­tion and mit­i­ga­tion across our na­tions,” he said.

The awards cer­e­mo­ny will recog­nise in­di­vid­u­als and in­sti­tu­tions that have con­tributed sig­nif­i­cant­ly to the re­gion­al cli­mate agen­da. At­ten­dees will al­so re­ceive in­sight in­to the Cen­tre’s up­com­ing projects re­lat­ed to cli­mate in­no­va­tion, da­ta ser­vices, and sus­tain­able de­vel­op­ment.

The CC­C­CC ex­pressed ap­pre­ci­a­tion to Cari­com Mem­ber States, the Gov­ern­ment of Be­lize, de­vel­op­ment agen­cies, im­ple­ment­ing part­ners, aca­d­e­m­ic in­sti­tu­tions, and grass­roots or­gan­i­sa­tions for their on­go­ing sup­port.

As it marks this mile­stone, the Cen­tre has com­mit­ted to ex­pand­ing its re­gion­al reach, in­creas­ing ac­cess to cli­mate fi­nance, and pro­mot­ing aware­ness of cli­mate change among Caribbean cit­i­zens.