James Fletcher

CCREEE Executive Board
Chairman


James Fletcher was the Minister for Public Service, Information, Broadcasting, Sustainable Development, Energy, Science and Technology in Saint Lucia from 2011 to 2016.

During his tenure, he led an aggressive modernization of the energy sector, commissioned modern ICT centres in several under-served communities, started the program for free island-wide Wi-Fi, developed a 311 call centre for information on public service matters, initiated major water development projects on the east coast and in the south of the island, and established an Employee Assistance Programme to provide free, confidential counselling to public officers.

James Fletcher played a leading role in the Caribbean’s ‘1.5 to Stay Alive’ civil society campaign and during the COP21 negotiations he was selected by the COP President to be part of the ministerial team that helped to achieve consensus on the elements of the Paris Agreement. He was recognized by Global Optimism in Profiles of Paris as one of the people who played a key role in creating the historic Paris Agreement. In 2019, he was selected by the United Kingdom’s Chevening Scholarship Program as one of 35 Global Changemakers.

At different points in his career, James Fletcher has served in the Government of Saint Lucia as the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, and the Cabinet Secretary and Permanent Secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister. He was also the Director of Social and Sustainable Development at the OECS Commission. He currently manages his own consulting company, SOLORICON. He wrote and published the book Governing in a Small Caribbean Island State, and he authored the chapter ‘The Battle for Small Island Developing States’ in the Cambridge University Press publication ‘Negotiating the Paris Agreement: The Insider Stories’. In 2020, he launched The Caribbean Climate Justice Project, which advocates for climate justice for the people most impacted by climate change. In 2022, he edited and published “Where is the Justice? An Anthology of Caribbean Youth Perspectives on the Climate Crisis”.

James Fletcher holds a PhD degree in Plant Physiology from the University of Cambridge and a BSc (Hons) in Biochemistry from the University of Ottawa