Caribbean Community (Caricom) Secretary General Edwin Carrington anticipates the 15 member regional trading block that includes Trinidad and Tobago will make a ’dent’ on the climate change issue that is dominating the 2009 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Port of Spain.

In an interview with the Sunday Express yesterday at the Trinidad and Tobago International Financial Centre (TTIFC) in Port of Spain, Carrington said that St Lucia Prime Minister Stephenson King, who is the lead Caricom Head of Government on climate change matters, was to have been a full participant in the talks on the issue during the CHOGM.

King arrived in Trinidad and Tobago for the CHOGM yesterday afternoon.

Carrington also noted Guyana President Bharat Jagdeo has also made strong statements on the issue, ’especially in the aspect with respect to forests’.

Carrington made reference to the Caricom Heads Liliendaal declaration on climate change in Georgetown, Guyana, in July and what he described as their very active participation in the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) meeting on the issue on September 21 in New York, USA, to stress how much the regional body has done to push the cause of saving the environment.

’I think we have put a lot into it and I see no reason why we should not be able, with what we are going to do here (during CHOGM), to make our dent or our imprint in some part of this climate change matter,’ Carrington said.

The matter was at the top of the agenda of a Caricom caucus meeting that took place at the Hyatt Regency Hotel on Thursday evening but Carrington noted there was one slight hiccup in the talks.

’We had a little problem because some Heads were not here It was really to brief them, make sure they were up to speed and, let me put it this way, we took the opportunity to ask their guidance on a few issues and to take note of a few other things that have come up since the July meeting. All in all it was valuable,’ Carrington said.

As for Prime Minister Patrick Manning’s remarks during the opening of the CHOGM at the National Academy for the Performing Arts (NAPA) yesterday that the event was a ’Caricom initiative’, Carrington expressed his pleasure at that declaration.

’I think that was wonderful and everybody applauded that. We have to thank Trinidad for that again,’ he said.