In Caribbean small island developing States (SIDS), electrical power outages are frequent in the aftermath of major weather events. While local service disruptions often last a few days after these events, nationwide power grid failures lasting several weeks, or months have resulted in enormous social and economic impacts. In 2017, Hurricane Maria left 90 per cent of the population of Dominica without access to electricity for over four months (Commonwealth of Dominica, 2020) and caused a systemwide collapse of Puerto Rico's power grid that took 11 months to be entirely restored (Campbell…
The Caribbean faces multidimensional vulnerabilities driven by climate change and aggravated by Small Island Developing States’ natural and economic characteristics (SIDS). A critical natural feature of SIDS is the extreme vulnerability to climate-change-induced events. Economically, the Caribbean has followed the global trend of seeing its urban areas swell during the last decades. Moreover, the region’s coastal areas expose human settlements, infrastructure, and businesses to external shocks, such as climate change-induced extreme weather events. In addition, the 2019 novel coronavirus disea…
In the Caribbean, high water demand, changes in land use, climate variabilities impacts, deforestation, soil erosion, pollution, inadequate wastewater treatment, and the overexploitation of water sources1, impact on the quantity and quality of available freshwater resources. The management of freshwater resources through an integrated approach is internationally recognised as a best practice for supporting the sustainability of this finite resource.
The recent United Nations - 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development report noted the low to medium-low levels of implementation of the integrated …