The Central American Integration System (SICA) Summit reaffirmed reaffirmed disaster risk management (DRR) and climate change as a top priorities for the regional agenda, and instructed various SICA institutions to work on measures related to climate change adaptation, food security, climate financing, and disaster preparedness.
29 June 2012: The XXXIX Central American Integration System (SICA) Summit reaffirmed disaster risk management (DRR) and climate change as a top priorities for the regional agenda and called for reinforced regional initiatives to increase resilience to climate change.
The Heads of State and Government of Belize, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama met on 29 June 2012, in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
The leaders adopted a plan of action in which they instruct SICA’s Central American Commission on Environment and Development (CCAD) and Central American Agriculture Council (CAC) to multiply and reinforce joint regional initiatives and actions within the framework of the Plan of Action of the Regional Strategy for Climate Change (ERCC) to reduce the impacts of climate variability and climate change on food and nutritional security. They ask the SICA General Secretariat (SG-SICA), in coordination with CCAD, to take the steps necessary to ensure that all SICA institutions incorporate the measures set out in the ERCC Action Plan, particularly those aimed at reducing vulnerabilities and strengthening adaptation capacities.
The plan of action further instructs CCAD, the Coordination Center for the Prevention of Natural Disasters in Central America (CEPREDENAC) and the Regional Water Resources Committee (CRRH), in coordination with member country environment and water authorities, to generate initiatives for mobilizing new and additional financial resources, principally within the framework of the new climate financing architecture, with special emphasis on the Green Climate Fund.
The plan also contains a call by the Heads of Government to CCAD to coordinate preparation of joint SICA positions ahead of the 18th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 18) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Doha, Qatar, that seek, in line with the principle of common but differentiated responsibility, “real and effective” compromises for the implementation of the Durban Platform and ratification of the second phase of the Kyoto Protocol.
The plan of action also envisages the creation of a CEPREDENAC Task Force to ensure that customs and immigration facilities expedite humanitarian aid at SICA airports and border crossings during responses to disasters. [Declaration of SICA Heads of Government (in Spanish)] [Publication: Plan of Action Approved by Heads of Government (in Spanish)]