Building a climate resilient power sector in the context of the Caribbean small island developing States’ energy transition. Policy Brief

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…

Resilient and affordable housing in the Caribbean: Policy recommendations towards a transformative, green and inclusive recovery strategy. Policy Brief

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…

Limiting Temperature Rise - What Does It Mean for Caribbean SIDS?

Director’s Desk: Limiting temperature rise to 1.5 degrees to stay alive - What does it mean for Caribbean SIDS?

As is well known, Caribbean small island developing States (SIDS) are vulnerable to recurrent multidimensional shocks. These have lasting social, economic, and environmental impacts; effects expected to become further aggravated in a world with a persistently warming climate. The COVID-19 pandemic further exacerbates these impacts.…

Global Warming Impacts to Freshwater Resources in Caribbean SIDS

Water, by its continuous movement within the Earth and the atmosphere is the primary medium through which climate change influences this planet’s natural, physical, chemical and biological systems and processes. Global warming is affecting seasonal rainfall variabilities, precipitation rates, and resulting in uncertainties of freshwater supplies. Fresh water including both surface and ground is a finite resource and essential to sustaining human health, economic, environmental and ecosystem services (UN 2021). The Caribbean small island developing States (SIDS) are highly vulnerable to the imp…

Synthesis of policy interventions responding to integrated water resources management challenges in the Caribbean SIDS

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 …