Caribbean vulnerability and innovation in focus at COP26
IN THE months leading up to COP26, the terms accessibility and financing have become mantras that from a Caribbean perspective, threaten to fall on deaf ears. World leaders have been calling for a faster shift towards sustainable development, yet the two things slowing this transition are accessibility and financing – two things that world leaders have promised wholeheartedly and have not delivered ... yet.
The Caribbean is one such region affected by this issue. Mitigating and primarily adapting to the impacts of climate change come at a significant cost, and for a long time, island nations and developing countries have been saddled with it. Despite the fact that global action has been difficult to implement, developing nations have always continued to pioneer new opportunities for sustainability. These efforts have been enhanced by the ability to lead discussions in relation to climate-change mitigation.
UNEQUAL REQUIREMENTS
Considering the financial commitments and logistical issues associated with travel, it is admirable that Caribbean nations have always been present and willing to demonstrate leadership at the United Nations yearly climate change conference (COP). Often held in the Northern Hemisphere, attending these summits is disproportionately disadvantageous to island states. Accessibility has always been promised, but pathways to attendance have never been seamless or clear. Expensive travel costs, the skyrocketing prices for accommodation at the summits are serving as additional barriers to necessary voices to the conversation on climate. While there are often multiple Caribbean nations and Small Island Developing States (SIDS) represented at COPs, there is no guarantee that that same nation would be able to attend the following conference. Yet every year, there has been representation.
With the threat of COVID still very present and international travel even harder to navigate over long distances, there are fewer opportunities available for delegations from SIDS to make their way to this year’s 26th COP in Glasgow. As always, there will be representation – but certainly not as much as previous years. When considering the amount of time these nations have invested in warning of the impending climate crisis, the time it took for the issue to be recognised, and the unequal nature of the damage being inflicted by this crisis, it seems unfair that island nations are not provided with better opportunities to have their voices prioritised in global negotiations.
ABUNDANCE OF OPPORTUNITIES
Resilience and innovation drive the Caribbean. No challenge is too small or too great, and even the threat of the climate crisis is not enough to dampen spirits. “What will it take for us to get the mighty of the world to protect us against the existential threat to our survival?” Asked Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, “But we who are invisible do not have the luxury of time because we are busy trying to survive. If it matters enough, we can choose to end climate change. Our only limits are the limits to our imagination. We achieve what we put our resources behind,” she continued. “Let us choose to end climate change. We will achieve it. Human ingenuity will enable us to do so. But we cannot wait. Let us bring it forward.”
As such, developing nations have continued to be at the forefront of sustainable development initiatives. From the Caribbean region implementing climate-smart technology, to agro-tourism in Grenada, and renewable energy in Jamaica, the entire region is finding the solutions needed for a global transition towards sustainability. While this innovation and problem-solving has led to a range of breakthroughs and opportunities, sourcing affordable financing continues to be an issue.
This is despite frameworks being put into place to compensate developing nations dealing with loss and damage caused by climate change and even after Paris Agreement provisions laid out a financing scheme to help develop local adaptation and capacity-building initiatives. After recognising the issues that islands had been warning of, global governments agreed to take concerted action, but somehow the help promised has not materialised, and certainly not in the way it was presented. Beyond the equality issues facing developing countries attending COP, financing is set to be one of the largest talking points at this year’s climate conference
- but both of these have similar overtones. Our hope is that an outcome of this COP is that financing moves from a talking point to a point of decisive, measurable action.
FINDING FINANCING
As Dr Walton Aubrey Webson, Antigua & Barbuda’s representative to the United Nations and the chair of the Alliance of Small Island States, pointed out during the 2021 Virtual Island Summit: “It’s time to change. We need developed countries to keep their promises. It’s no more a matter of money, but a matter of existence.”
This sentiment was also echoed by the head of the United Nations Development Program, Achim Steiner. “Isn’t it ridiculous that in the midst of a trillion-dollar emergency response economy that we’re seeing right now, we are haggling over a $20 billion price tag to essentially unleash hundreds of billions of dollars, if not trillions of dollars, of developing country investments. Time is running out, and we can’t find a way in which we can finance this? It’s just not acceptable.”
It is with this backdrop that the UNFCCC’s COP26 is taking place in Glasgow: a rift between developed and developing nations on the issues of accessibility and financing. While there have been more barriers to entry than usual, SIDS and developing nations from the Caribbean and around the world will be represented and will want to be heard. COP26 President Alok Sharma has called for these groups to be more visible and listened to during negotiations, and it will be our innovation and resilience that will be on show. A vast selection of opportunities for sustainable development programmes exist in the Caribbean. They just need the funding, coupled with measurement and accountability related to that funding, to be available and distributed in a fair and equitable manner.