For decades, the scientific community has repeatedly and alarmingly warned about climate change. The scientific evidence leaves no doubt: unless urgent action is taken to mitigate environmental damage, the permanent effects of climate change will have increasingly catastrophic consequences.
Despite this urgent situation, few solid measures are being taken globally. World conferences are held every year, but they are still far from reaching agreements capable of significantly reducing pollution and global warming.
The average global temperature has already reached 1.2°C, while the targets set by the Paris Agreement - signed in 2016 - aim to limit global warming to 1.5°C by 2030. If current national climate plans remain unchanged, the average global temperature would increase by 2.5°C.
Increasingly noticeable, this situation presents dramatic consequences. Extreme weather events are becoming more frequent every year. It is estimated that, in the last 30 years alone, the number of climate-related disasters has tripled.
At the beginning of May, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) released the State of the Climate in Latin America and the Caribbean 2023 report, which reveals a disturbing first conclusion: last year was “the warmest year on record”, while “the last nine years have been the warmest on record”
The report details that, due to extreme weather and climate events, “many countries in the region suffered agricultural losses”, highlighting that this situation “exacerbated food insecurity”. It also points out that on most of the region's Atlantic coast, “sea levels have continued to rise at a faster rate than the global average.” This represents a huge threat, especially for island countries.
In an interview with Brasil de Fato, researcher Claudia Marín Súarez, coordinator of the Latin America and Caribbean team at the Cuban Center for International Policy Research (CIPI, in Spanish), explains that for the Caribbean, climate change “is an existential issue” that is part of “its main foreign agenda”.
“The small island states in the Caribbean are highly vulnerable to climate change. They are constantly exposed to the destructive power of hurricanes that pass through the region year after year. At the same time, they are also exposed to the risk of their urban settlements being submerged due to rising sea levels. All of this has made climate change a key issue for the Caribbean,” she explains.
The WMO report notes that last year's Atlantic hurricane season “recorded an above-average number of storms.” Global warming has a direct impact on the intensity of hurricanes, causing them to become stronger and intensify more quickly, leading to less time for evacuations and preparation of affected communities.
“The destructive passage of hurricanes affects Caribbean countries in different ways,” says Marín Súarez. “It's a situation that forces the countries of the region to develop a specific long-term approach.”
“Every year, after hurricanes, governments need to allocate funds to repair the lost infrastructure and livelihoods destroyed, such as food. This involves a very significant expenditure of resources, even more so for governments that, like most in the region, are heavily indebted and have very little fiscal space to promote public policies enabling social development,” he explains.
Shared but differentiated responsibilities
To achieve the goals set out in the Paris Agreement, drastic changes need to be made: greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced by 43%. This urgency directly affects the energy sector, which is the main source of greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels.
Extreme weather events affect the entire planet. However, the poorest sectors of society suffer the most, even though they contribute the least to global pollution. It is estimated that the richest 10% of the world's population produces 50% of global greenhouse gas emissions, while the poorest 50% accounts for only 8% of global pollution.
The same parallel can be drawn between countries. The country that polluted the most in history is the United States, responsible for 24% of all CO2 emissions recorded. Historically, the region that has polluted the most is Europe, with 33% of CO2 emissions.
Claudia Marín Súarez points out that “Caribbean countries, like many countries in the Global South, apply the principle of ‘Shared but differentiated responsibilities,’ meaning that the countries of the South do not have the same responsibilities for the level of environmental degradation. There is a historical accumulation of carbon emissions based on the patterns of development and consumption, which is mainly the responsibility of the countries of the North.”
“The countries of the South must use and exploit their natural resources in the most sustainable way possible. While the main burden of reducing carbon emissions – as well as changing consumption and exploitation patterns – must fall on those most responsible for the environmental deterioration we are suffering today: the countries of the global North.”
The future is here
Extreme weather events are not part of a possible near future. Floods, storms, droughts and scorching temperatures are a reality that is increasingly affecting our present.
Therefore, countries need to take measures to mitigate the damage caused by these situations. The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) estimates that by 2030, “developing countries” will have to spend between US$ 140 billion and US$ 300 billion a year to deal with the damage caused by climate change.
Claudia Marín Súarez says that, despite being small countries, the Caribbean states "have shown significant assertiveness in terms of their abilities to propose initiatives.” Among these proposals is the “Bridgetown Initiative”, promoted by Mia Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados, and adopted by the whole of CARICOM.
“It is a proposal to reform the current international financial architecture without breaking with it. [The Bridgetown Initiative] proposes changes to the guidelines and axes around which countries access funding. It proposes expanding funding to countries vulnerable to climate change. In other words, it proposes that the focus of funding should be on the effects of climate change and the management of natural disasters.”
The Bridgetown Initiative is named after the capital of Barbados. It proposes the establishment of a “pause clause” that would allow the most vulnerable countries to natural disasters not to pay their foreign debts when they need these resources to take care of their populations. At the same time, it is proposed to reduce the interest rates the poorest countries pay on the financial market.
During the 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Egypt, Mia Mottley summed up the spirit guiding the Caribbean proposals. Referring to the history of enslaved populations in the Global South for the benefit of the Global North, she summarized:
“We financed the Industrial Revolution with our blood, sweat and tears. And now we have to face the double penalty of also paying the cost of increased [greenhouse gas] emissions? This is fundamentally unfair.”
Edited by: Rodrigo Durão Coelho
