The presence of French President Nicholas Sarkozy and Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting is important and will highlight the significance of tackling climate change -which needs to be understood not just by scientists, but by the average man in the street. So said vice president of the Commonwealth Association of Planners, CAP (in the Americas), Dr James Armstrong.

’I think the significance (of Sarkozy and Rasmussen) is when issues come up in the international forum having major players backing them will highlight the issues more. And because the issues have been pronounced, it will give greater significance to the problem we are having, (in relation to global warming.)’

Sarkozy, dubbed the ’hyper President’ by European media, has been known as one of the European Union’s strongest advocates of working towards stringent climate change targets.

Rasmussen will be the hosting head at the United Nations’ much anticipated climate change talks in Copenhagen next month.

Government insiders have said Rasmussen’s presence here is symptomatic of the importance of CHOGM, to be held next week in Port of Spain.

Climate change has been defined by international experts as the global challenge of the 21st century and will be the starring topic of the CHOGM meeting which will begin here on November 27.

The effects of climate change on small islands like the Caribbean could be their eventual disappearance, experts have said.

’Right now climate change tends to be in the realm of scientists and what we need to do really is understand climate change will be affecting people on the ground, human settlements,’ said Armstrong.

’A lot of our little settlements are within half a kilometre of the coasts and climate change should be a major concern in terms of the sea level rising, then agriculture will be affected, as well as our water supply,’ he explained during a brief interview with the Express on Thursday.

The CAP’s members hail from an array of countries and have been involved in the planning of much of the major streets, and gateways in many of the world’s important cities ranging from Johannesburg in South Africa, Toronto, Nairobi, Kuala Lumpur, London and even Port of Spain.

They met in Port of Spain on Thursday in a regional workshop which they organised specifically to precede next week’s CHOGM meeting and prepare a document to pass on to Prime Minister Patrick Manning on the issue of climate change and their effects on human settlements.

Armstrong said in T&T where many people have cars, ’many more than their Caribbean neighbours’, more focus on what each individual can do to cut back on their energy expenditure should be taken into account.