In the Caribbean, the Climate Crisis is an Economic Crisis

 Tuesday 2, August 2022

 

In the Caribbean, the Climate Crisis is an Economic Crisis

 

The climate crisis is an economic crisis. A disastrous weather event could mean economic devastation to any Caribbean island. There is no other region in the world where the problems of debt caused by natural disaster destruction overlap with the increasing climate vulnerabilities more than in the Caribbean. Islands such as Jamaica, Barbados, and Dominica all incurred crippling debt because of hurricanes.

 

Prime Minister Mia Mottley of Barbados found that the requirements of larger financial entities capable of providing economic relief to the Caribbean operated on outdated economic models that did not take into account the financial handicap climate change has brought to the region. The parameters for providing financing for Caribbean countries were out of date and inequitable. 

The World Bank determined that Barbados was too rich to access developmental aid which unfairly hindered the country from accessing the funds needed. 

 

Read more on Mottley’s economic climate activism for Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and her negotiations with the IMF from ProPublica

 

Climate Justice

 

• In 2020, nearly 10 million children were displaced because of weather-related catastrophes. There are approximately one billion children from 33 high risk countries who are vulnerable to the future impacts of climate change. To guide how to protect, include and empower children during the climate crisis, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the International Organization for Migration (IOM), Georgetown University, and the United Nations University launched The Guiding Principles for Children on the Move in the Context of Climate Change. Unicef reports in a press release.

 

• Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and least developed countries (LDC) are particularly at risk to the climate crisis. Their size and economic state can mean debilitating loss and damage, particularly with the climate change. Researchers Simon Addison, Ritu Bharadwaj, Anna Carthy, Clara Gallagher, Camilla More, Nora Nisi, and Clare Shakya, co-wrote the paper “Addressing loss and damage: practical insights for tackling multidimensional risks in LDCs and SIDS.” Download it here. 

 

• “Where is the Justice? An Anthology of Caribbean Youth Perspectives on the Climate Crisis” edited by James Fletcher, is a book that sought the opinion of young people on the climate crisis; how it was affecting them; their lives, livelihood, and thoughts on their future. These young people wrote poems, short stories and submitted photos. Where is the Justice contains 13 essays, five poems and five photographs that provide an insight into how Caribbean youths view the threat of climate change. James Fletcher in his YouTube channel says more.  

 

• How to beat the heat with global warming? The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) created the publication “Beating the Heat: A Sustainable Cooling Handbook for Cities.” UNEP urged city builders to create “community and equity-centric initiatives” to deal with the sweltering heat climate change has brought, especially in cities. The handbook was made in collaboration with Cool Coalition, RMI, the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy, Mission Innovation, and the Clean Cooling Collaborative. Planting trees was among one of the solutions offered to beat the heat, especially in densely populated cities that have more buildings and little green space. The Jamaica Gleaner reports. 

 

• Four students will start the new term as Bahamas Environmental Steward Scholars (BESS). Offered by The Bahamas Reef Environment Educational Foundation (BREEF) and The Island School, the four scholars will spend a semester at The Island School at Cape Eleuthera, and do a four-month paid internship at BREEF. The applicants came from New Providence, Eleuthera, and Grand Bahama. Read more from Eyewitness News.

 

• Panelists Kendria Ferguson, sustainability consultant from The Bahamas, Khadija Stewart, founder of Ecovybz Environmental Creatives, regional representative for Sustainable Ocean Alliance in Trinidad and Tobago, Anaitee Mills, co-founder of ITACA Solutions, Sustainable Development Professional from Guatemala, Alicia A. Wallace, director of Equality Bahamas and Danielle Nembhard, marine scientist and environmental consultant from Jamaica at the Caribbean Women for Climate Justice Conference 2022, funded by the Open Society Foundations, discuss planning for a just future. Listen to The Climate Conscious Podcast here.

 

• The United Nations defines the Escazú Agreement as the “First environmental treaty of Latin America and the Caribbean, (that) aims to contribute to the protection of the right of every person of present and future generations to live in a healthy environment and to sustainable development. Each Party commits to ensuring this right as well as any other related and universally-recognized human right.” The University of Costa Rica’s professor at the Faculty of Law Nicolas Boeglin discusses the legal teeth the Escazú Agreement provides as Chile ratifies after Antigua and Barbuda, Ecuador, Panama, Nicaragua, Saint Lucia, Argentina, and Mexico. Read more from the University of Costa Rica’s website. 

 

• The Jamaica Environment Trust (JET) is calling on the government to place a moratorium on deep-sea mining. The Seabed Authority hosted its 27th session in Jamaica in mid-July. JET notes the potential ecological damage to the largest ecosystem in the environment could happen because of deep-sea mining. JET's chief executive officer, Dr Theresa Rodriquez-Moodie said, “The world is already in the midst of a climate crisis and a health crisis and countries are struggling to cope with the impacts of both while every day new challenges emerge. We do not need to further amplify the problems.”  The Jamaica Gleaner reports. 

 

• Between July 19-20 there was an oil spill off The Bahamian island of Exuma. There was an estimated 35,000 gallons of diesel fuel that leaked. Joseph Darville, chairman of conservation group Save The Bays, said the spill was significant but preventable. He and other environmental preservation groups in the country are calling for better oil and safety regulations to be used. Eyewitness News reports. 

 

• In July 2019 the People's Progressive Movement, the elected government of The Cayman Islands created a steering committee to shape a policy to ban single-use plastics such as plastic bags, straws and take-out food containers. However, three years later, it is yet to be done. Cayman News Service reports. 

 

Energy

 

• As ExxonMobil’s subsidiary, Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL), continues with their exploration of Guyana’s potential oil reserves, Former Guyanese Finance Minister, Winston Jordan, questions if the people of Guyana have any say in the operations. Kaieteur News reports.

 

• Every week in Guyana protestors have taken to the streets to demand the government renegotiate a better deal for the oil and gas explorations currently going. However, this opinion column from Kaieteur News suggests that the protestors first must demand the government release the original oil contracts to the public. 

 

Gender Justice

 

• The Attorney General for The Bahamas, Ryan Pinder, announced that the law will be amended to allow equal citizenship rights between men and women by amending the Bahamas Nationality Act. The Bahamas is one of 25 countries that deny women the right to confer nationality on their children on an equal basis with men. Bahamian women lack the right to pass nationality to children born abroad, and the women do not have the right to confer their nationality to foreign spouses, Bahamian men, however, can. In 2002 and 2016 there were referendums to amend the Act, but it was rejected by the citizens. Former Health Minister Renward Wells says amending the Act without a referendum would be undemocratic. Eyewitness News reports.

 

• When addressing climate change, it must be done through a gender lens, looking at how the climate crisis will affect women and girls. When making plans women’s abilities must be included and their gender-based realities must be accounted for in disaster relief efforts. Jamaica recently launched a Gender and Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan by the Climate Change Division. The Jamaica Gleaner reports.

 

Economic Justice

 

• Citizenship by Investment Programs, where people invest large sums of money to get citizenship in another country, are under scrutiny because of the lack accountability, transparency and fairness. For some debt-strained Caribbean islands, the Citizenship by Investment Programs have been an important income stream. While the investment programs may be beneficial to the islands, the citizens may not see the benefits as the cost of living and the cost of real estate may rise to accommodate the foreign investment. The Caribbean Investigative Journalism Network launched a series of stories looking into the impacts of Citizenship by Investment Programs of Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St Kitts and Nevis and St Lucia.

  

• For 20 years various investors and government entities have been trying to get the Four Seasons Hotel in Barbados off the ground. The partially built shell of the incomplete hotel stands as a physical reminder that the project, initially valued at US$160 million, never got off the ground and went over budget because of delays, legal fees and theft. The Caribbean Investigative Journalism Network (CIJN), written and researched by Trinidadian journalist Steffon Campbell, looked into the long history of the Four Seasons Barbados. Read more by the CIJN here.

 

• In November 2020, hurricane Iota hit  Providencia Island, a Colombian territory in the Caribbean. Approximately 98% of the island’s infrastructure was damaged or destroyed, including its hospital. As the island needs to be rebuilt, and is in the reconstruction process, the transparency of public funds was brought into question as the opacity of public contracts and public information and information related to the reconstruction is not available. Colombian lawyer, politician and former interim Governor of San Andrés and Providencia, Álvaro Archbold Núñez in his blog Quitasueño  gives his opinion. 

 

• Effective July 1, 2022, Guyana has a new minimum wage. The minimum rate of wages payable to an employee should be no less than $347 Guyanese dollars per hour; $2,776 Guyanese dollars per day; $13,880 Guyanese dollars per week. Kaieteur News reports.

 

Decolonization

 

• St Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves proposed to have a single-item referendum to remove the Queen as head of state. Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and Dominica are Republics and removed the Queen as head of state for a local person. Gonsalves further said he wanted to establish a body that would be in charge of changing official names of streets, parks and other places from being named after colonial administrators to the names of national heroes. i Witness News reports.

 

• How can a school in Puerto Rico teach anti-racism if they do not have materials to address the complex and sensitive topic? Schools in Puerto Rico, a US territory in the Caribbean, struggle to find sufficient source material to teach children about racism, colorism, the effects of slavery and identity. While in some parts of the island there are significant changes to the school curriculum that will eventually bring about a guide for teachers at all levels on how to incorporate anti-racism into their classes, is enough being done? Read more from the Centro de Periodismo Investigativo. 

 

Human Mobility

  

• The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat in a statement said the entire group was “extremely saddened” by the deaths of 17 Haitians who drowned off the coast of an island in The Bahamas, fleeing their country. CARICOM vowed to continue working with Haiti and the international community to bring peace to the country. Newsroom Guyana reports.

 

• Bahamian police officers confiscated large sums of money from the homes of men arrested in connection to the smuggling of 60 Haitian migrants leading to the death of at least 17 people. The police were able to recover only two identification cards of the Haitian migrants. The police are pleading with the Haitian community to help identify the bodies. Eyewitness News reports.

  

• Refugees International, the Center for Global Development, Asylum Access created a report to see how refugees and forced migrants are treated around the world and if they are allowed to work. The researchers looked at the “range of legal, administrative, and practical barriers that were preventing migrants from accessing equitable economic inclusion.” Trinidad and Tobago received a score of 3. The report says, “While the country has no legislation granting asylum or work rights to refugees, in 2020 the government implemented various ad hoc policies granting Venezuelan refugees permission to reside and work in the country.” Guyana scored a 1 because it offers no “de jure rights to refugees, despite its ratification of the Economic Covenant.” Read the full report here.

 

 Banking, Finance, and Debt

 

• Despite being registered, some Non-Governmental Organizations struggle to open bank accounts in The Bahamas. In 2019 the Non-Profit Organizations Act was passed, however, some organizations struggled to open a bank account although they received generous funding from donors. Matt Aubry, executive director of the Organization for Responsible Governance, said there were more than 1,000 non-profits registered in the Bahamas, but they do not have a good relationship with the banks. Eyewitness News Reports.

 

• ArawakX is a crowdfunding platform from The Bahamas. It was created to allow Bahamians to have more ownership of financial properties. It has 7,000 investors currently registered on the platform. CEO D’Arcy Rahming Sr said the company is in discussions with more than 300 national and international companies for funding. Eyewitness News reports.

 

• Bahamian Prime Minister Philip Davis confirmed the government will use global financial group Rothschild & Co to independently advise on its $11.8 billion debt portfolio. Davis said the financial group was not restructuring the debt but is being used to assist in looking at the debt profile to see where they could find avenues to spend and repay better. Eyewitness News reports.

 

Public Health

 

• The Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) has called for Caribbean countries not to stigmatize and discriminate against people with monkeypox. Executive director, Dr Joy St. John said stigmatization and discrimination could deter people from getting the necessary treatment, testing and accessing services which can lead to cases being undetected and spreading throughout the community. The region has reported nine cases of monkeypox so far in The Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and Martinique. Newsroom Guyana reports.

 

Judiciary and legal services

 

• Caribbean countries are providing international arbitration services for people, companies and institutions around the world. International companies that operate in multiple countries need places that have the legal framework to facilitate dispute resolution and other arbitration services. Countries such as The Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands (BVI), the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago are working on establishing infrastructure that would allow for international arbitration. Read more from The Global Arbitration Review.

 

Culture

 

• Kaysha Corinealdi, an Assistant Professor of World History at Emerson College, will have her book “Panama in Black: Afro-Caribbean World Making in the Twentieth Century” published by Duke University Press in September 2022. The historical text will follow multiple generations of Afro-Caribbean Panamanians as they navigate a diaspora life between Panama, the US and the Caribbean. Corinealdi uses multiple sources such as yearbooks, photographs, government reports, radio broadcasts, newspapers and oral stories to weave a picture about the culture and legacy of Afro-Caribbean Panamaniasn. Repeating Islands reports. 

 

Opportunities:

 

• The Ashley Lashley Foundation in partnership with UNICEF Eastern Caribbean, the Clara Lionel Foundation and the Open Society Foundations, has officially opened the inaugural HEY Global Climate Fund, which is a $5,000 USD climate financing grant for young people. HEY Global Climate Fund would select three climate activists between the ages of 13 and 27 to create a project under the themes Climate Change and Health, Climate Change and Gender, Climate Advocacy and Climate Entrepreneurship. Shortlisted applicants will be interviewed between  September 14 and September 16, 2022. Winners would be announced on October 11, 2022. Apply here. 

 

• The Caribbean Climate Network is having two training sessions:  

• August 10 at 6pm AST  will be on event planning and 
• August 24 at 6pm AST will be on how to take action for climate adaptation in the Caribbean.

To register for the sessions, click here.

 

• The Knight Center is having a free online multilingual course for journalists on how to cover the climate crisis called "How to Cover the Climate Crisis — and Fight Disinformation.” The course will be taught by journalism professor at the University of Texas at Austin and former science writer for The New York Times John Schwartz. Register here.

 

We welcome comments and critiques on the Just Caribbean Updates. You can see the Updates on our website, as well as receive it directly through the mailing list. Thank you for reading.

 

We aim for the JCU to be an informational tool, as well as a space for connection between Caribbean experts, policy-makers, activists and organizations. If you would like to post an event or opportunity on the JCU, we invite you to send the information to justcaribbeanupdates@gmail.com. Please put in the following format: date -- title of event -- organizer -- registration link OR title of opportunity -- institution -- link to more information.