Existential threat.
Anyone who regularly watches or reads news reports about the impact of the climate crisis on the Caribbean would have heard those words ad nauseam.
But with the release of the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report in the past 18 months, government leaders, activists and scientists in the region have even more reason to use those words.
The report warned that continued increases in greenhouse gas emissions mean that unless urgent action is taken, global warming will go far beyond the targets set out in the 2015 Paris Agreement. — causing devastating natural disasters, accelerated environmental degradation and widespread loss of life and livelihoods.
Small Island Developing States (SIDS) like those in the Caribbean are among the most vulnerable because of our size, income levels and location.
After disappointment with the outcome of COP26 in Glasgow (the last international meeting on climate change) and the findings of the IPCC report, Caribbean leaders organized a meeting ahead of COP27 (November 6–18 in Egypt).
An initiative of Bahamian Prime Minister Phillip Davis, the meeting was the first of its kind – and one Caricom hopes to make a regular part of its schedule. Leaders, representatives of international organizations and other stakeholders met for two days in Nassau last August.
“The time for action is now. The time for talking must end,” Davis said at a news conference at the start of the meeting.
The Bahamas is still recovering from Hurricane Dorian, one of the most destructive storms to ever hit the region. Storms of increased intensity are one of the most important impacts of the climate crisis.
The Prime Minister’s Office YouTube channel has posted a video — Close: The Courage to Rebuild – a few weeks after the meeting to mark Dorian’s third anniversary. It showed a woman, Baronette Thomas, crying as she visited what used to be the home she shared with her husband and three children.
All four of them were killed, along with 74 other people throughout the Bahamas. Hundreds more disappeared. Tens of thousands lost their homes, businesses or jobs. The storm caused almost $4 billion in damage – or about a quarter of the Bahamas’ GDP.
“Dorian ruined my life,” Thomas said.
Tthe impact of Dorian and other storms is likely to contribute to the tougher stance Caribbean leaders are now adopting.
“Unfortunately, the planet, people and poverty have been given too little attention by those countries that are motivated by profit,” said Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Mottley at the closing press conference. “It’s time for the world to stand up and say enough is enough.”
Barbados has struggled to cope with persistent drought, a long-standing problem exacerbated by climate change. In 2019, the island experienced its worst drought in decades. Drought reduces farm yields and occasionally taps run dry in parts of the island.
Dominican President Roosevelt Skerrit said he had wondered if Caricom should boycott the COP meetings to show their displeasure with how little the gatherings have benefited the region. Finally he concluded: “We must go and let our voices be heard. Because our forefathers who fought for independence and emancipation – if they had given up, where would we be today? We have a duty and obligation to fight for the survival of future generations”.
In 2017, the category five Hurricane Maria leveled most of Dominica. The losses amounted to more than 225% of the country’s GDP. Skerrit has since pledged to make the island “hurricane proof” by 2030.
Grenada’s prime minister, Dickon Mitchell, appeared to take the position of Gaston Browne – Prime Minister of Antigua & Barbuda and former Caricom chairman – that the small islands should explore the possibility of climate change lawsuits.
“I think the issue of climate change has gone beyond being a moral issue,” Mitchell said. “It is a justifiable issue. I think that as islands that have borne the brunt of the losses and damages experienced by greenhouse gases, we have a right to compensation.”
He spoke of plans to build a wall to protect the Carenage, a 300-year-old stretch of water on the outskirts of St George’s which is popular with tourists and is being eroded by rising sea levels. Ultimately he hopes to make the capital a “climate smart” city. All this, of course, requires large sums of money.
Caricom’s focus at COP27 and beyond is to force industrialized countries to meet their Paris Agreement commitment to provide $100 billion a year to countries affected by the climate crisis – but which had little to do with causing it. her.
One idea discussed at the meeting was a loss and damage fund held using 1% or more of the revenue derived from the sale of fossil fuels, the burning of which is one of the main sources of greenhouse gas emissions.
To make access to credit and other financing easier, Davis is calling for a change in how national income is measured. The Bahamas’ GDP per capita has been deemed too high to qualify for certain aid facilities. Davis is calling for a vulnerability index to be used instead of GDP per capita in determining a country’s need for financial assistance.
Bahamian climate scientist Adelle Thomas said Caricom countries have been pushing for these things for a long time, but have become particularly focused after COP26.
“Since COP26, Caribbean countries have been really proactive in getting what they want from the international community on climate change,” she said.
Thomas has been part of the movement to make the loss and damage caused by climate change suffered by vulnerable countries a bigger part of the conversation.
“Since the development of the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) in 1992, the main focus has been on mitigation. What can we do to reduce greenhouse gas emissions?” Thomas says.
“As small island nations, we in the Caribbean emit less than 1% of those global emissions,” she continued. “What we really need to focus on is how we deal with the impacts of climate change. And this is adaptation. If we experience those impacts, how do we recover from them – and that is loss and damage.”
Thomas works with the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) and the Santiago Network, which was established in 2019 by the UNFCCC – the body behind COP meetings and assessment reports – to provide countries with technical support on loss and damage. She was the lead author on the IPCC report.
She said Caricom has a number of obstacles to meet its demands.
“We’re fine saying that this hurricane caused so much damage. What we need to do more is evaluate other effects, especially slow onset,” she said.
“We know sea levels are rising, but we’re not really tracking where we’re experiencing coastal erosion, where we’re seeing land loss,” she continued. “One of the challenges we face then internationally is that without that assessment of all the impacts of climate change that we’re experiencing now, it’s hard to say that we need that much money to deal with it,” said she.
At COP meetings, delegations from Caricom countries are small compared to those of larger countries – two or three people compared to hundreds.
“We are spread very thin in the negotiation rooms. This is why AOSIS is so important. This allows the voices of small islands to be heard in the various negotiating chambers,” she said.
In graduate school, Thomas intended to specialize in sustainable tourism, but was persuaded to choose climate change instead.
“My dissertation advisor said you should pay attention to climate change. Due to climate change you may not have any islands left to think about for tourism,” she said.
Like most people in the Bahamas, she has personal experience with the effects of hurricanes. “My earliest memory is Hurricane Andrew in 1992, having to seek shelter in our bathroom. Because that was the only room that had concrete around it,” she said.
Her grandparents’ house was completely destroyed by Dorian. Friends and other family members also lost their homes. “So it’s a very personal connection to the impacts of climate change and the loss and damage. When you experience it yourself, you have a lot more commitment to make sure it’s addressed,” she said.
She said there is reason for optimism about the Caribbean’s prospects in dealing with climate change. “When I returned to the Bahamas in 2012 after finishing my studies, people were still debating with me whether climate change was real or not. I was just shocked by it. Then, 10 years later, people say, ‘That’s true. This is a big threat to us. And we have to do something about it.’
“There has been progress. Although it has been slow,” she said. “We cannot give up. Surrender is not an option.”
Her words echoed a comment made by Prime Minister Mitchell at a press conference in August. He and other leaders at the meeting saw it as a positive sign that Grenadian Simon Stiell was appointed UNFCCC executive secretary the day before the meeting began.
“You can’t get tired. And you can’t give up,” he said. “It is an existential threat. We are fighting for our survival.”
