Earth Today | ‘Take heed’

WITH THE bracing reminder of a world in peril from climate change, local pundits insist it is mission critical for small-island developing states (SIDS) to push for the required financing and other resources to protect lives, livelihoods and ecosystems.

The reminder has come from the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, titled Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability, which sets the assessment of climate impacts and risks against “unfolding non-climatic global trends, for example, biodiversity loss, overall unsustainable consumption of natural resources, land and ecosystem degradation, rapid urbanisation, human demographic shifts, social and economic inequalities, and a pandemic”.

“For the Caribbean, the latest report provides the ammunition to demand bolder and more transformative responses to climate change. It would be sad and, ultimately, to our detriment, if as a region we let this moment pass without coming together, and in one voice doing so,” said Professor Michael Taylor, dean of the Faculty of Science and Technology at The University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, and a celebrated climate scientist.

“It is in fact a little frightening that in the region, the release of the latest report has seemingly been overlooked and does not yet seem to have prompted the kind of alarm or advocacy that it demands. But it may be early days yet, and the case that this kind of response is still to come,” he added.

“This report is unambiguous in its findings that vulnerable countries will not be able to adapt to warming beyond the 1.5 degrees Celsius limit. It does not place two degrees Celsius on the table as an alternative or compromise option. Rather, in no uncertain terms, it states that time is of the essence, as the window to secure a liveable and sustainable future, which its unambiguous links to achieving the 1.5-degree target, is rapidly closing,” Taylor, who co-authored the IPCC’s special report on 1.5 degrees Celsius of global warming, said further.

‘MISSION CRITICAL’

Donovan Campbell, head of department and senior lecturer in geography and geology, also at The UWI, said raising the needed capital to mount an effective response to climate impacts and risks, including extreme weather events, is ‘mission critical’.

“Mission critical for the Caribbean is to rapidly scale up climate finance. The report clearly shows that vulnerable SIDS are facing severe constraints to adaptation, and the financial needs are much higher than estimates (previously) presented,” he said.

“Loss and damage due to disastrous extreme weather events like hurricanes and floods, limit the availability of financial resources and impede economic growth across the Caribbean. Yet, global climate finance on adaptation is insufficient. The magnitude of the climate problem facing the region requires substantial financial investment to match the urgency with which we need to act to protect the most vulnerable groups,” added Campbell, also a respected climate scientist.

Eleanor Jones, head of Environmental Solutions Limited, said it is time to bolster planning.

“We need risked-based planning as we look on what we are doing, either with our national budgets or regional budgets, and take more of a holistic approach. We have to move from an event-responsive, firefighting approach to a more holistic, resilience-based approach,” she said.

“The report stresses the fact that it is human-induced climate change, human activity that has contributed to the tremendous impact that we have seen. We have, therefore, to take responsibility for the changes we have contributed to, and the focus has to be on how we build more resilient circumstances, so that we can take care of human health, ecosystem health and, ultimately, planetary health,” she added.

Taylor agreed, noting that Caribbean countries must make it “obvious that the matter of a liveable future is being taken seriously”.

“In Jamaica, we are at the point where sectoral plans and budgets to support them over the coming year will be spelt out. It would be heartening if the projects, plans, policies, and funding to be announced reflect a recognition of the serious risk posed by climate change … as well as show that a lot of thought has gone into developing a coordinated and consistent approach to dealing with that risk,” he said.

“It would be great if this were an unmistakeable element of the sectoral agendas to be announced. The region must demonstrate to the world, of whom we are demanding greater action, that we, too, are seized by the serious challenge we face; and, even without waiting on greater external assistance, we are programming an approach that will enable our own survival. In that context, the global action being asked for becomes partnership requests, as opposed to handouts,” he said.

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