While dozens of RMI representatives were dispatched to Paris for the two-week climate summit, the RMI’s Senior Climate Change Advisor is not among them.
Oddly, too, Dr. Riyad Mucadam, the RMI’s senior climate advisor, was the only RMI government representative sent to attend the High Level Support Mechanism Meeting last month in Apia, Samoa where ministers and top-level staff from every Forum island nation received a briefing to prepare them for the Paris climate summit happening this week and next. The Apia meeting was sponsored by the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Program (SPREP) to prepare ministers and senior officials for the potential climate agreement that could be produced by the Paris summit.
But while Mucadam was dispatched to Apia for the high-level briefing, he is not among the over 40 people representing the RMI in Paris this week.
In the meantime, Island Eco, the local company Mucadam established in Majuro many years ago to develop island-centered renewable energy applications, is being honored in Paris with an award from the Women and Gender Constituency organization for an innovative project on the outer islands. The award, which includes a $1,000 prize, will be presented in Paris December 8. The organization recognized Island Eco as a “gender-just climate proof” solution, which it describes as “safe, appropriate and socially, economically and environmentally sound solution.”
The award is for a solar powered refrigeration project at Aur Atoll, which will be showcased by posters at the Paris event. “The project was entirely implemented by an all-women team that was trained in Majuro,” said Mucadam. “The young women then trained and supervised young men to help install the systems. The entire project, starting at a discussion to the commissioning of 30 systems at Aur Atoll, was achieved in nine months.”
The project is supported by the USDA Rural Development Electrification Programs and Aur Atoll Local Government. Some assistance for training the women was also provided by the ADMIRE program through the Ministry of R&D’s Energy Division.
“We will participate by Skype in the awards ceremony on December 8,” noted Mucadam — a no-carbon way to join the ceremony in Paris from the Marshall Islands.
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