A taskforce set up by the Government to lead Bermuda’s response to the “urgent challenges” of climate change has been out of action for almost 18 months.

It is not clear if the group, which was established in 2021, according to repeated public statements by Walter Roban when he was the Minister of Home Affairs, ever met or completed any work.

But Jaché Adams, the Minister of Public Works and Environment, confirmed yesterday that it no longer existed and that he planned to re-establish it.

Asked when that would happen, Mr Adams told The Royal Gazette: “Not soon enough.”

The minister said: “Now that we sort of have a better understanding of where we're headed, it is now a space of how do we plan and prepare for it.”

Civil servants told The Royal Gazette, in response to a public access to information request, that a climate change taskforce was not in existence and had not been operating since at least February 2025, when the last General Election took place and responsibility for the environment switched ministries.

The permanent secretary at public works and environment wrote in an e-mail on Wednesday that a climate change taskforce did exist within the home affairs ministry before the election.

But the director of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources added later that day: “I am not aware of any climate change taskforce or any taskforce meetings prior to or since February 2025.”

Yesterday, environmentalists expressed their disappointment at the Government’s failure to make climate change a priority.

Kim Smith, the executive director of the Bermuda Environmental Sustainability Taskforce, said: “For some years now, Best has been lobbying government, asking for details of the discussions and work done by the taskforce and urging that a national policy and action plan for the mitigation and adaptation to the threats from climate change be produced by the Government.

“For the same number of years, we haven't even received an acknowledgement of those inquiries, let alone any response. I suppose that should have been a clue.”

Ms Smith said having a national policy “would orient us all in the direction we need to be thinking and working” and that “all efforts to that end would be in service to that policy”.

She added that it was hard to know what to say about the non-existence of the taskforce.

“What a lot of time has been wasted. We are extremely disappointed and feeling that we have just been strung along for years.

“I can't help but think that recent increased time spent with leaders of Caribbean islands has shown up how far behind Bermuda is on this front.”

Noelle Young, a consultant with Greenpeace UK who previously worked for the Bermuda Ocean Prosperity Programme, said the apparent disbanding of the taskforce set up by Mr Roban and the failure to establish a new one was “quite baffling”.

“They never met, as far as I know,” she said of the taskforce. “I myself would love to know more and I would like to be a part of the taskforce or at least to be able to give them information.”

She said a climate change taskforce was “vital” for Bermuda, noting that the island did not have a climate change mitigation plan, as required for all countries by the United Nations.

Ms Young hoped Mr Adams would “move forward” soon on the taskforce and the mitigation plan.

Mr Roban, who was also deputy premier, told MPs in March 2022 that a climate taskforce had been established the previous year, made up of representatives from the home affairs, public works, finance and transport ministries, as well as the departments of energy, environment and natural resources, and planning.

His remarks came as he announced that the Government had commissioned a $200,000 climate change study.

A British peer told the House of Lords in April 2023 that the British Government was helping Caribbean nations to develop policies to combat global warming, while neglecting Overseas Territories such as Bermuda.

The Ministry of Home Affairs responded that Bermuda had a climate taskforce, whose members, “including scientists, engineers and planners, are experts and more than qualified to advise on matters relating to the impact of climate change”.

Mr Roban spoke in Parliament in November 2024 about the threats identified by the study, warning that climate change was “no longer a distant threat” but one “affecting Bermuda today and … projected to continue with potentially far-reaching consequences for all of us who call Bermuda home”.

He said the taskforce was “inter-ministerial”.

Mr Roban added that an expanded “multi-sectoral” climate change taskforce would be established, to include members of the public, private and third sector, and the group would be tasked with creating a national action plan.

A year-in-review report for his ministry was published on February 13 last year, only days before the General Election, and it stated that the multi-sectoral taskforce “was established”.

Yet the membership of that body seems not to have been made public and a national action plan has not been released.

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources moved from home affairs to the Ministry of Public Works and Environment after the February 18 General Election.

The Gazette asked the public works ministry for the minutes of the meetings of the taskforce in June and the Pati request was transferred to the DENR a week later.

In response, Geoff Smith, the director of the DENR told the newspaper on July 21 that a request for quotation for a project management contractor position had been issued that week and one of the contractor’s first roles “will be to create the taskforce and to set an appropriate frequency for the meetings going forward”.

Dr Smith wrote that the minutes could not be provided because they did not exist.

The Gazette pointed to past announcements from home affairs about the taskforce.

Dr Smith wrote: “I think when the Ministry of Home Affairs made that statement, they were in the process of bringing a secondee on board to manage the process and to act as project manager for the climate change taskforce.

“However, that secondment position did not find an appropriate person within government to take on the role.

“As a result, the expected stakeholders across government, industry, academia, NGOs, etc have not yet come together to have meetings from which minutes would be generated.”

Kirk Outerbridge, the permanent secretary at public works, upheld Dr Smith’s decision.

Mr Outerbridge wrote this week: “While there is an intent to recreate the climate change taskforce within the Ministry of Public Works, this has not yet occurred and thus there are no minutes.”

Asked if Bermuda had not had a climate change taskforce since February 2025, the permanent secretary replied: “I can't say with certainty, as when the taskforce was within home affairs it might have concluded sooner than that date.”