Climate Change Initiative

Public Education

In an effort to educate and inform the Bahamian public about the impacts of climate change, the National Climate Change Committee established a subcommittee to develop and implement a public education and outreach strategy (PEO strategy).  This was achieved through a collaboration between The College of The Bahamas, The Bahamas National Trust and Bahamas Reef Environment Educational Foundation.   The Public Education and Outreach Subcommittee (PEO Subcommittee) was formed in July 2010 as a subcommittee of the National Climate Change Committee (NCCC), under the auspices of the BEST Commission.

The key objectives of the PEO strategy are:

  • to build awareness of what climate change is and what its expected impacts will be on all the sectors of Bahamian society, including economic and social implications;
  • to encourage action-based responses from all sectors of society with the aim of contributing to the sustainable development of the country and improved quality of life for citizens;
  • to develop educational materials to support educators in The Bahamas about climate change;
  • to provide public education workshops to various sectors of The Bahamas;
  • to enhance engagement by the public on both an individual and organizational level in mitigation and adaptation activities;
  • to provide a mechanism of ongoing collaboration with both local and regional partners;
  • to generate more political will on the part of the Government to implement policy responses to climate change (both mitigation and adaptation) that will contribute to sustainable development and that will also meet the quality of life needs of the population.

SummaryofPEOactivities(withnotes)2