Dubai, United Arab Emirates: Minister of Agriculture, Marine Resources and Family Island Affairs, the Hon. Clay Sweeting, participated in the Agriculture Innovation Mission for Climate’s (AIM) first ministerial meeting held during the World Expo 2020 on February 22.

AIM, which was established by the United States and the United Arab Emirates at COP 26, catalyzes greater investment in agriculture and innovation to help raise global ambition and underpin more rapid and transformative climate action, by enabling science-based and data-driven decision and policy-making.

There are 31 countries and 41 non-governmental partners signed on to AIM.

During his address, Minister Sweeting said The Bahamas recognized the urgency to join AIM after the disaster Hurricane Dorian left in its wake.

“The Bahamas will continue to take bold steps to strengthen the country’s resilience to natural disasters. By committing to the AIM for Climate initiative, this will catalyze greater investment in agricultural research, and encourage transformative climate action in the agricultural sector,” he said.

“During this year, the Ministry of Agriculture, Marine Resources and Family Island Affairs plans to support greater diversification in the Blue and Green Economies, as a long-term sustainable development strategy for the country. This will be done primarily by engaging our youth and women in focal areas such as the use of technologies in green waste, biofuels, bioenergy and agroecological research.”

The AIM meeting preludes COP 27 which is expected to be held in Egypt next year.

Minister Sweeting said he was excited to speak with world leaders in Agriculture about climate resiliency.

“The ministers shared ideas of how we could contribute to sharing innovation and technology and how we can work together, not only to affect climate change, but how we could adopt each country’s best practices to fight climate change for food securities as well,” he said.

“The United Kingdom sparked my interest in sharing technology and innovation through school partnerships. We also spoke to the Minister of Environment of UAE about how they can transfer knowledge for climate smart seeds that can adapt to our climate and similar to what they have here.”