The presentation discusses some of the pressing challenges Caribbean small islands face when building sustainable development, with emphasis on the environmental vulnerabilities

1. Development and Environmental Challenges
in Caribbean SIDS
Dr. Jacqueline LAGUARDIA MARTINEZ
INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST INDIES, campus ST. AUGUSTINE
Jacqueline.Laguardia-Martinez@sta.uwi.edu

2. Topics to be explored
• Caribbean SIDS
• Development and environmental challenges
• Caribbean SIDS and Climate Change
• Caribbean SIDS responses

3. http://www.scidev.net/global/water/feature/ocean-science-development-sids-facts-figures.html

4. https://ehs.unu.edu/media/press-releases/worldriskreport-2015-food-insecurity-increases-the-risk-of-disaster.html#info

5. Development challenges for SIDS
•Economic recession
•Poverty and inequality
•Crime and insecurity
•Energy supply
•Economic vulnerability
•Social vulnerability
•Security threats
•Environmental vulnerability

6. http://www.sids2014.org/
The SAMOA
Pathway
13 7 14 2
6 511 12
8
3
10 15

8. Development challenges: Economic crisis impacts in Caribbean SIDS
• The non-commodity-exporters of the Caribbean were hit hard through lower
tourism arrivals, remittances, and exports.
• Weak fiscal positions deteriorated further, as policy makers tried to offset lower
external demand, while already-heavy debt burdens increased in most countries.
• The reduction of international financial flows and the recession weakened
balance sheets of financial institutions and corporate firms, which are highly
exposed to the tourism sector.
• In the case of Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU) countries, weak
indigenous banks have put the monetary union under considerable stress.
• The slowdown starting in the 1990s was triggered by the loss of trade
preferences to European markets and deterioration of the terms of trade,
reduced fiscal space, and demographic trends, including emigration of skilled
labor, together with recurring natural disasters.

9. Source: IMF, Caribbean Small States: Challenges of High Debt and Low Growth, 2013

10. Source: Caribbean Economic Report, September 2016, RBC Caribbean
September, 2016

11. Caribbean SIDS development challenges
(i) debt;
(ii) access to external financing (developing financing)
(iii) environmental vulnerability and climate change;
(iv) gender equality;
(v) food security and nutrition;
(vi) social development: health, education and social inclusion;
(vii) competitiveness and innovation;
(viii) infrastructure;
(ix) energy security;
(x) employment;
(xi) poverty and inequality;
(xii) crime
Upper-middle-
income
economies,
except Haiti

12. Environmental challenges for Caribbean SIDS
CLIMATE CHANGE

13. Climate Change and SIDS
• About 90 percent of SIDS are located in the tropics (climate significantly influenced by
ocean-atmosphere interactions such as trade winds, monsoons and hurricanes)
• SIDS are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change because:
a. geographical location
b. insular conditions and relative small size
c. concentrations of population and infrastructure in coastal areas
d. limited economic base and dependency on natural resources, combined with limited
financial, technical and institutional capacity for adaptation
• SIDS have a combined population of around 65 million people contributing to less than
1 percent of global GHG emissions concentrations emissions
• In the Caribbean, climate change does not bring positive effects
• Caribbean SIDS contributions to GHGs is less than 0.3 percent of global GHGs
emissions
• CARICOM countries are responsible for only 0.16 per cent of global CO2 emissions

14. Environment and climate indicators in Caribbean SIDS
Source: Climate Variability and Change and Their Potential Health Effects in Small Island States, 2006, page 1959.

15. Negative effects derived from climate change with
significant impact in the Caribbean
1. Higher incidence or greater intensity of extreme events such as tropical storms
and cyclones, intense rainstorms and droughts
2. Sea-level rise that causes marine inundation of low-lying areas and saline
intrusion into terrestrial systems
3. Coral reefs and mangroves disappearing
4. Higher incidence of endemic diseases and NCDs
 Most affected economic activities: agriculture, fisheries, tourism
 Increased public spending and investment
 Negative impacts on food security, migration and preservation of cultural and
natural heritage
 CARICOM position: global average surface temperature increases to be limited
to below 1.5° C of preindustrial levels

16. Temperature trends for the Caribbean
Source: The IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report | What’s in it for Small Island Developing States?, CDKN, 2014, page 31.

17. Source: IMF, Caribbean Small States: Challenges of High Debt and Low Growth, 2013

18. Estimated costs of damages caused by extreme events in the Caribbean
Source: Climate Change and the Caribbean: Review and Response, 2012, page 173.

19. Caribbean SIDS reaction to climate change
CARICOM responses

20. REGIONAL PREPARATORY PROCESS
• Jamaica Regional Preparatory Meeting (July 2013) - KINGSTON OUTCOME DOCUMENT
• Inter-Regional Preparatory SIDS Meeting –Barbados (August 2013)
• CARICOM Regional preparatory Meeting– (August 2014)
CARICOM PARTICIPATION IN SAMOA
• Heads of Government from Barbados, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis
• Ministerial/official representation from Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Dominica,
Guyana, Jamaica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and
Tobago.
• Barbados PM chaired multi-stakeholder dialogue on Sustainable Economic Development
• CARICOM SG chaired a Side event on Financing for Sustainable Development
• Bilateral Meetings held with - UNEP Executive Director & GEF CEO
Creation of new working groups in 2014
• Working Group on Sustainable Development
• Working Group on Climate Change and SIDS
CARICOM PARTICIPATION in the Third International Conference on SIDS

21. • Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC)
• Caribbean Meteorological Organization (CMO)
• Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology (CIMH)
• Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA)
• Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF)
• Coastal Resources Inventory System (CRIS)
• Caribbean Global Water Partnership
• Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism
• Caribbean Environmental Health Institute
• The Caribbean Planning for Adaptation to Climate Change Project (1997- 2001)
• The Adaptation to Climate Change in the Caribbean Project (2001-2004)
• Special Pilot on Adaptation to Climate Change (2007-2011)
• The Regional Framework for Achieving Development Resilient to Climate Change (2009-
2015)
CARICOM regional institutions and projects

22. Caribbean SIDS initiatives to face climate change effects
ADAPTATION MITIGATION
RESILIENCE
>

23. The Strategic Plan for the Community 2015 - 2019

24. Energy reconversion
• Most Caribbean islands depend on fossil fuels imports
• Solutions to the external dependency:
Preferential agreements: PETROCARIBE, Clean Energy Finance
Facility for the Caribbean and Central America (CEFF-CCA)
CARICOM’s Regional Energy Policy from 2013 and the Caribbean
Sustainable Energy Roadmap and Strategy (C-SERMS) Framework
has as initial targets for the contribution of renewable energy to
total electricity generation 20, 28 and 47% by 2017, 2022 and
2028, respectively.

25. Fuente: Achieving a Resilient Future for Small States. Caribbean 2050, 2016, pp. 75.

26. Fuente: Achieving a Resilient Future for Small States. Caribbean 2050, 2016, pp. 76.

27. Final remarks
 In the Caribbean the SIDS category is barely used (mostly used in academia, media but still
insufficient).
 Caribbean territories need to gain greater recognition as SIDS.
 Caribbean SIDS needs to build a strong case on their vulnerabilities. Strong national statistical
and information systems and comparative/case studies are fundamental. Cooperation with
Pacific SIDS in these areas should be pursued.
 Caribbean SIDS need to incorporate the SIDS discourse more actively in the national and
regional foreign policy.
 Caribbean SIDS needs to promote their agenda as SIDS following a transversal agenda that
touches the 17 SDGs and the main regional organizations: CARICOM, OECS, ACS, CELAC.
 Caribbean SIDS should explore how to better incorporate the non-independent Caribbean
territories.
 Caribbean SIDS should be more active in AOSIS.
 Caribbean and Pacific SIDS need to work closer, as SIDS in a Post Cotonou - Brexit reality.

28. Final remarks
Caribbean SIDS needs to advance on recognizing its vulnerability as a condition that can
be transformed than as a problem to be solved.
The Caribbean region has the opportunity on changing its external projection as SIDS:
changing the ‘can’t do’ for a ‘will do’ and becoming moral leaders.
Caribbean SIDS can be key players in promoting international protocols and corrective
actions to address climate change.
Caribbean SIDS need to find the way of the sustained economic growth and social
development.
Identifying ways to access to external financial resources and markets is essential for
Caribbean SIDS.
Caribbean SIDS need to develop a long term energy supply strategy. An alliance with
Latin American neighbors will be useful (Costa Rica)
Discussions on alternative economic model should be promoted: Green Economy and
Blue Economy.

29. The lack of external funds is considered the biggest obstacle
for Caribbean SIDS to deal with the effects of climate change
and to promote sustainable development
“Climate change and environmental and natural resource management
present a significant opportunity for the Region to access resources for
development. Building capacity for, and adopting a coordinated
approach to, resource mobilization as a Region, will be important in the
Plan period.”
(Strategic Plan 2015 – 2019)