About ESL’s Quality & Environmental Health Laboratory
Eleanor Jones, head of Environmental Solutions Limited (ESL), is a woman on a mission at this year’s 22nd Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change now only days away.
She is representing the business sector on the Jamaica delegation to the international climate talks in Marrakech.
“I am very honoured and really very thrilled that the private sector is being included on this delegation … The private sector has a very critical role to play in leadership and in enhancing transformation … It is wonderful that we are able to be there to learn first-hand how the process works,” she told The Gleaner earlier this week.
“There is really so much that needs to be done and the business sector has not yet fully bought into building climate resilience and largely because I don’t think we have managed to communicate in a way the business sector understands,” she added.
NEW APPROACHES
And herein lies Jones’ mission.
“I am hoping to get out of the sessions some new approaches that can be used because, at the end of the day, the private sector is interested in profit, but also corporate social responsibility. I know it from where I am, but there is always a lot of room for learning,” she noted.
“I am also looking forward expanding the network and linking with some other business persons so I can share with the business sector here, through the PSOJ (Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica),” Jones added.
Environmental Solutions Limited (ESL) is a noted Caribbean-wide resource of environmental excellence. Established in April 1991, ESL provides environmental management services throughout the English-speaking Caribbean, Suriname, Central America, West Africa, Canada, and Asia.
Meanwhile, Jones said she is looking to participate in a business investment forum and with an eye to, among other things, issues to do with energy.
“There are many issues related to how you really supply and meet the energy needs. So it will be useful to see how others are approaching it and also how the business sector is approaching it and partnering,” the ESL boss said.
Jones also has her sights set on how the private sector can support the freeing up of climate finance flows while benefiting their bottom line as well as that of the country.
PARTNERSHIP
“Now, we are talking about public-private partnership and if we really want to make a difference, we really have to move on that. We really need to look at public-private partnership, both in terms of sensitisation and business opportunities to make sure we meet our commitment to the 1.5 … and to also look at how we can build our adaptation strategy…”
Jones is one of the more than five-member delegation to Marrakech. Included in the team are representatives from civil society and the forestry sector, together with negotiators from the Climate Change Division.
