Director of the Department of Environment, Ambassador Diann Black-Layne, participated as a featured speaker in an informational meeting convened by representatives of the Virgin Islands during COP30 in Belém, Brazil.
The session, while not a formal launch of the Virgin Islands Trust Fund, was designed as an in-depth briefing to provide stakeholders and interested parties with a clearer understanding of the fund’s emerging structure and its intended operational framework. The purpose of the meeting was to outline how the Virgin Islands plans to position itself in the evolving climate finance landscape, with a specific focus on adaptation, mitigation, and long-term resilience-building.
The gathering brought together a number of technical experts and regional development partners who have been active in the establishment and management of climate-related trust funds across the Caribbean. Speakers included representatives from the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), and envoys from several countries that have already launched national climate funds to address their own vulnerabilities. These contributors offered guidance on best practices, including effective fund governance, establishing transparent financial management systems, identifying bankable projects, and strengthening institutional capacity to secure and deploy climate finance.
A significant emphasis was placed on both short- and long-term strategic planning—ensuring that early actions can generate immediate benefits while creating a pathway for sustained resilience and adaptive capacity. Presentations also addressed the challenges small island developing states face in accessing climate finance, the importance of readiness, and the need to design funds that respond to community needs, environmental priorities, and evolving climate risks.
Ambassador Diann Black-Layne, who was invited because of her leadership and firsthand experience in developing the SIRF (Sustainable Island Resource Framework) Fund in Antigua and Barbuda, provided substantial insights into the practical realities of designing and operationalizing a national climate fund. She spoke to the institutional processes required, the governance mechanisms necessary to ensure transparency and accountability, and the critical importance of community engagement and multi-stakeholder involvement. Her contribution drew on Antigua and Barbuda’s own lessons learned—particularly in balancing donor expectations, meeting international fiduciary standards, and ensuring that climate financing reaches vulnerable communities.
Her presentation offered concrete recommendations for the Virgin Islands as it advances its own trust fund, highlighting the need for robust project pipelines, sustained capacity development, and the integration of resilience goals into national planning frameworks.
Ambassador Black-Layne’s expertise contributed significantly to the discussion and helped guide participants on how to structure a fund that is both technically sound and capable of attracting long-term financing.
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A Gaston send she go beg money you know, I don’t know if they get incentives to do so.
Where is the beef?
“concrete recommendations for the Virgin Islands as it advances its own trust fund, highlighting the need for robust project pipelines, sustained capacity development, and the integration of resilience goals into national planning frameworks.”
When I read these rhetorical BS about trust fund. what trust fund ? Way de money come from ?
I need my medication..
Someone please help me to get it.
Wasn’t Ambassador Dianne Black-Layne stripped of her ambassadorial privilege some time ago?
Wasn’t Dianne Black-Layne relieved of her position as Director of the Environment and replaced by Ms Camacho?
Wasn’t their a big fight in cabinet over the position of Dianne Black-Layne and her suitability and qualification for the job which she had held for decades?
Who really is the director of the environment?
Is it Dianne Black-Layne or Ms Camacho?
At least who is getting paid for the position?
Is this government using the treasury as their personal piggy bank to reward comrades?
Having announced that Dianne Black-Layne was no longer the director of the environment, she proceeded to help her mom cook a big pot of seasoned rice and fed residents of Cashew Hill for their performance of free labour to build a bridge over the gutter.
Did that soften the hearts of the cabinet and kept her in position?
Who is talking instructions from whom, Black-Layner from Camacho or vise versa?
MoleWYN, the micromanage, please tell us.
The environmental department falls under your port folio.
You claim to be an Adventist.
Will you fkr once speak the Adventist truth.
Or have you taken leave from the church to live a life of corruption in politics?
@ Straight Shooter,
I realized at a young age when the late Basil Peters taught us how to view the things in our lives critically
I began to question what I was reading. I came to realize Ellen G. White had no objection to slavery. Her teaching created the SDA and is their figure similar to the Roman Catholic Pope.
Please give Molwyn a little break, he still following the teaching of a person who had the vision to create a new religious sect call Seventh Day Adventist
To this day the people of African Descent who are SDA has never questioned the slave enabled visionary whose teaching they follow.
May Dr. John Ashe soul lay in peace.
Some people reach their demise, while others continue to thrive in the sewer.
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