Only climate-change defences can stop Caribbean disasters

MEXICO CITY: Caribbean nations need faster access to capital to invest in protection against the creeping effects of climate change, as many struggle to recover from the devastating blow of Hurricane Irma, says the president of the Caribbean Development Bank.

Dr William Warren Smith said the region would push at coming UN climate talks for richer countries to play a bigger role in helping the Caribbean bolster its defences as rising sea levels and violent storms threatened island states.

“There’s a responsibility of the international community to address this problem. Small, vulnerable states are in great need of the resources being transferred to us so we can address the problem that we face, much of which is not our doing,” said Smith, who is Jamaican.

Hurricanes might be occasional, but sea level rise was “almost continuous”. Hurricane Irma killed more than 60 people on its rampage through the Caribbean and the south-eastern US, with 43 of those deaths in the Caribbean, where homes were destroyed and basic services devastated.

Scientists have said warmer air and water resulting from climate change may have contributed to the severity of Irma and Hurricane Harvey, which hit Texas on August 25.

The Barbados-based Caribbean Development Bank has made emergency grants and loans to member countries to help cover costs in the wake of Irma.

The Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF) has paid out $30 million (R395m). Turks and Caicos Islands will receive $13.6m, and Anguilla $6.5m. Nearly $6.8m will go to Antigua and Barbuda, and St Kitts and Nevis will get $2.3m, it said.