The Executive Council of SIDS DOCK, the global sustainable energy and energy efficiency initiative for small island developing states, has  elected Seychelles as  Vice-Chair for the AIMS region for 2016-2017.

The Chair is Dominica in the Caribbean and the Vice-Chair for the Pacific is Samoa. The AIMS region comprises the SIDS of Africa, the Indian Ocean, the Mediterranean and the South China Sea.

The Executive Council was elected by the SIDS DOCK Assembly of member states at the COP21 climate change conference in Paris last December , following the establishment earlier in the year of SIDS DOCK as the first organisation of small island developing states to be recognised as a UN treaty organisation.

Ambassador for Climate Change and SIDS Issues Ronny Jumeau represents Seychelles on the Executive Council and will fulfill the role of Vice-Chair. Meeting in New York earlier this month, the Council also selected Seychelles to be the case study for the AIMS region for the development of a new SIDS DOCK clean energy fund aimed at tapping the growing involvement of philanthropic trusts and foundations in the 2030 Agenda.

The case studies will also look at other cost reductions and social and environmental benefits that occur when a country switches to clean energy, such as the savings in health budgets and medical bills caused by fewer people having to be treated and hospitalised for illnesses caused or exacerbated by atmospheric pollution from fossil fuel emissions.

Ambassador Jumeau is currently in Songdo, South Korea, attending the latest meeting of the Board of the Green Climate Fund (GCF). He is the alternate member of the Board for SIDS , with Samoa as the full member.

The GCF was created by the United Nations climate change process to assist developing countries mitigate and adapt to climate change.