Monroe Ellis: Law needed to close climate change response gap
Published:Monday | March 16, 2026 | 12:07 AMKimone Francis/Senior Staff Reporter
Auditor General (AuG) Pamela Monroe Ellis says the Jamaican Government has laid a solid foundation for the country’s climate response, but is warning of the absence of climate legislation to create legally enforceable standards and oversight mechanisms.
Her assessment was made in a 27-page report on Jamaica’s climate response, tabled in the House of Representatives last week.
The report evaluated Jamaica’s progress across three primary axes – governance, public policy and climate finance – using a scale where scores of 6.66 or higher indicate a strength and 3.33 or lower signal a challenge.
At the same time, Monroe Ellis cautioned that her department’s review did not include verification of technical or scientific data, but relied on information provided by the ministries, departments, and agencies it engaged with.
Additionally, the assessment did not extend to non-governmental or private sector organisations.
With a score of 80 per cent, Monroe Ellis said the country has made significant progress in establishing a strong framework, notably through the Climate Change Policy Framework and the Long-Term Emissions Reduction and Climate-Resilience Strategy (LTS).
She noted a strong institutional coordination led by the Climate Change Division and systematic mainstreaming of climate risks in public investments.
However, she pointed to a lack of climate-specific legislation, underdeveloped vertical coordination between national and local levels, and limited participation of vulnerable groups in decision-making.
“The Government of Jamaica needs to meet its commitment to develop climate legislation to create legally enforceable standards and oversight mechanisms as well as ensure that efforts towards strengthening coordination between national and local levels are achieved,” stated the report, produced by the Auditor General’s Department.
On the matter of public policy, a score of 82 per cent was given, with Monroe Ellis indicating that Jamaica demonstrated high ambition through its updated 2020 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), which expanded coverage to include land use, forestry and waste.
She said there were clear mitigation targets in the energy sector, pointing to the 50 per cent renewable energy goal by 2030, and disaster risk management integration.
At the same time, she said a finalised National Adaptation Plan is still pending with a 2026 target, and that seven out of 12 priority sectors still lack dedicated adaptation strategies.
On climate financing, Monroe Ellis gave the country a score of 52 per cent, indicating that there is considerable room for improvement.
She noted that, while public climate finance allocations increased by 253 per cent between financial year 2021-2022 and 2024-2025, tracking remains fragmented with no centralised system to monitor public, private, or indirect climate finance flows.
Over this period, the AuG noted that allocation to the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation’s Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation sub-programme increased steadily, from $416.9 million to $627.3 million, before significantly rising to $1.4 billion in financial year 2024-2025.
“In the area of climate finance, Jamaica took steps to integrate climate priorities into public budgets and secured funding from international sources such as the Green Climate Fund. However, financial tracking was fragmented with no comprehensive system in place to monitor public, private, and indirect climate finance across sectors. Finance tracking focused mainly on public-private projects, leaving purely private investments underreported,” Monroe Ellis’s report stated.
The auditor general said that, while foundational policies, plans, and partnerships were in place, implementation and accountability mechanisms needed to be strengthened.
She said enhanced data management, stakeholder inclusion, capacity building, and the development of sector-specific financing strategies will be critical in accelerating progress toward climate resilience.
She concluded that Jamaica has made meaningful progress in climate governance by aligning policies with global commitments, mobilising climate finance, and developing key strategies such as its LTS and updated NDC.
Additionally, she said institutional structures and budgeting frameworks increasingly reflected climate priorities.
“However, gaps remained, including the absence of dedicated climate legislation, weak coordination with local authorities, limited stakeholder engagement, and insufficient inclusion of vulnerable groups,” said the report.
Further, she said climate monitoring and finance systems are evolving but lacked centralised, real-time public access.
She added that legislative oversight and stakeholder accountability are also improving, but remained fragmented, and highlighted that the judiciary has yet to engage in climate enforcement.
The AuG said advancing enforceable legislation, strengthening institutional coordination – especially locally – enhancing inclusive engagement, and integrating monitoring and finance tracking systems are critical.
“These steps will boost transparency, build resilience, and support a low-carbon development path aligned with national and global goals,” she noted in the report.