Caribbean & Central America - December 2022

The big and controversial issue at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, was “loss and damage” - the idea that wealthy, high polluting countries should pay into a fund to compensate poorer countries who are suffering the adverse impacts of the climate change their pollution has caused. Thanks in part to the voices of Caribbean leaders, an 11^th hour agreement to make voluntary contributions to such a fund was eventually reached, providing a silver lining to an otherwise gloomy summit.  

Big powers like the US were initially against the concept of climate-related loss and damage, which could tie them into significant financial commitments. They have preferred looser, more voluntary schemes. The Group of Seven (G7), an informal grouping of advanced economies for example, supports a plan known as ‘Global Shield’ which will provide pre-arranged subsidised insurance and disaster protection to poorer countries. It would expand some existing arrangements such as the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility CCRIF), which helps limit the financial impact of natural hazard events on Caribbean and Central American governments by providing short-term liquidity when required. But environmental campaigners say such schemes should be in addition to, rather than instead of, loss and damage.

Prime minister of Antigua & Barbuda, Gaston Browne, spoke passionately about climate change impacts on small island states. He rejected the idea that his island home might have to be abandoned because of rising sea levels, turning its population of some 98,000 into “climate refugees”.

He said funding should come not only from the US and Europe but also from other “major polluters” such as India and China. Browne noted that because of drought, the country now must rely on energy intensive reverse osmosis for its drinking water, making local agriculture virtually impossible and forcing it to import 90% of its food. In his view climate diplomacy to address these problems is progressing too slowly, and Antigua and other poor island states may have to turn to international courts in an attempt to seek redress.

COP27 also saw the emergence of Prime Minister Mia Mottley of Barbados as a major voice making the case for the victims of climate change. Channelling the 1970s Jamaican super-group Bob Marley and the Wailers, she asked “who will get up and stand up for the rights of our people?” At COP26 in Glasgow last year she said rising temperatures were a “dreaded death sentence” for island states. This year at the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles, she said such countries are trapped in a vicious cycle of debt, rising borrowing costs, and inaccessible green technology.

Mottley helped shape the Bridgetown Initiative, a wide-ranging report which calls for major reforms to the Bretton Woods international financial system so as to mobilise some US$1trn of lending to tackle climate change and achieve the United Nations (UN)’ sustainable development goals. One of her advisors on the report, Avinash Persaud, has insisted on the need to be “stark about the fact that 40% of the world is burning and drowning, and those with the greatest capacity to do something are not doing something”. Some go as far as suggesting Mottley could be a candidate for the role of UN Secretary General in 2026, potentially the first woman the hold the role. Whether that happens or not, she is likely to continue highlighting the case for climate change funding in the Caribbean and beyond.