Earth Today | Country unity, research a must for climate security

AS THE world shoulders its way towards climate security in the wake of the most recent global negotiations on the subject, there are some key lessons learnt, certainly for developing countries, including Caribbean islands.

“The most important lesson from the recent COP (Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) was the need for solidarity amongst countries,” said Dr Adelle Thomas, senior fellow of the Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience Research Centre at University of The Bahamas and Caribbean science lead with Climate Analytics.

Thomas participated in the recent COP, which was in its 26th year and staged in Glasgow, Scotland. The agreement that has emerged has been labelled the Glasgow Package, which many believe has not gone far enough to satisfy the needs of developing countries, including on issues of finance, and loss and damage.

“AOSIS (Alliance of Small Island States) had strong ambitions for finance for loss and damage, and with the support of the Group of 77 and China, these ambitions were refined and put forward as a priority for developing countries. Forming alliances and solidarity are essential to ensure that the needs of developing countries are recognised as a priority,” Thomas explained.

Another important lesson, she said, has to do with the place of science.

“The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) Sixth Assessment Report, which was recently published, provided strong evidence that impacts that we are currently experiencing are due to climate change. This provided scientific support for our ambitions of securing finance to address loss and damage, which is already being experienced and is projected to escalate,” she said.

With the Glasgow Package in hand, these two lessons appear to be more important than ever.

“We need to develop a united front and hash out the details on what we expect for loss and damage finance. This will be a key issue that will be discussed at upcoming meetings, and it is essential that we have well-informed and united positions. This is part of an overall increase in regional cooperation that is needed around climate change issues,” she explained.

“We also need to continue to advocate to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius and ensure that high-emitting countries commit to net zero and meet the goals of the Paris Agreement,” the scientist added.

Invest in research

At the same time, she said there is need to increase research investment.

“There must be funding and support available for research in the Caribbean by Caribbean researchers. Too often Caribbean researchers lack the resources to conduct and publish meaningful research. This has resulted in there being far less research on the Caribbean than for other places. Government and the private sector should collaborate to dedicate specific funding and support for climate change research that is needed in the Caribbean,” she said.

Those areas of research include loss and damage associated with climate change.

“Investigating loss and damage, beyond [the] impacts of hurricanes is critical. Climate change is already having widespread impacts, which are being documented in many places. Unfortunately, in the Caribbean, we are not systematically investigating how climate change is affecting us across sectors. This is much-needed research that will strengthen our loss and damage finance and support needs,” Thomas said.

“We also need research on transformational adaptation. The scientific community has found that current adaptation will not be enough to reduce the levels of impacts that we can expect. Transformational adaptation is recommended as a way to change from business as usual to implementing measures that will actually reduce risks. However, there is very limited research on what transformational adaptation means in the Caribbean context, and this is a critical area of future research,” Thomas added.

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