Formulating a Pan Caribbean Partnership for Climate Action: An exercise in Functional Cooperation - Why Not ?

“The Caribbean experience makes abundantly clear that we must urgently reduce global emissions and work collectively to ensure that global temperature rise does not go beyond 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels ... cut greenhouse emissions by 45 per cent by 2030 and get to carbon neutrality by 2050.”  [Antonio Gutteres UN Secretary General at the  40th Regular meeting of CARICOM Heads of Government in St Lucia  July 2019]

Setting the Scene 

The UN Secretary General's message became even more potent in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian that literally devastated Abaco and Grand Bahama  Islands in The Bahamas.  It was reinforced at the UN Climate Action Summit with its refrain that  Climate Change poses an existential threat to many Small Island Developing States and Least Developed Countries and undermines sustainable development prospects for most.  However, nowhere were these issues more dramatically illustrated as in the presentation to the UN Summit by Prime Minister Mia Mottley on behalf of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS). This presentation carried  in last week's blog post, highlighted the need to:  

• Focus on the real solution to halt  and reverse emission of greenhouse gases, globally.    
• Achieve climate resilience from "roofs to reefs". 
• Engage in mapping vulnerability of key resources.
• Recognize that as insurance premiums rise, the catastrophic costs will be insurmountable.   
• The Caribbean Catastrophic Facility (CRIF) is a worthwhile but not a sufficient initiative.
• Accelerate the 'debt for nature swap' for a Blue Economy, an essential option.  
• Climate health represented by 'Hurricanes as heart attacks and Sargassum as diabetes'.

Making the Case for a Pan Caribbean Partnership 

These takeaways  apply as much to advocacy for the AOSIS objectives within the global arena as to a Pan Caribbean Partnership for Climate Action.  Previous instalments preceding this blog show that: the building blocks for a Pan Caribbean Partnership are already in place; Caribbean countries are among the most climate-vulnerable countries; their climate scientists  led by researchers at UWI are in the forefront of developing science-based strategies for climate adaptation and mitigation through their participation in the IPCCC processes; they lack access to climate finance; and their interests are not fully represented at the international level. Hence,  involvement in global cross cutting-multifaceted initiatives such as climate impacts research can strengthen the connections between the scientific assessments of climate change, vulnerability and adaptation, enable access to finance and help implement concrete projects.  


The Vision and Mission 

The Blog Innovation  and Climate Resilience (9-19-19) established the  building blocks for a Climate Action Partnership. It identified leading actors, institutions and priorities. It  highlighted the vision and mission of the Partnership as defined by the Three (3)  Ones Principle,  One Regional Plan, One Coordinating Unit and One M&E implementation instrument. This principle provides the guidelines of a plan proposed by the  Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (5Cs) and endorsed by the CARICOM Heads of Government. See Delivering transformational change 2011-21: Implementing the CARICOM `Regional Framework for Achieving Development Resilient to Climate Change`

Using the Regional Framework as a backdrop,  we are proposing an outline for consideration. It  hinges on four (4) pillars: (i) Knowledge for Climate Action; (ii) Clusters for Climate Resilience; (iii) Institutional Strengthening for Climate Adaptation and Mitigation; (iv) and  Sustainable Financing for Climate Change     


Knowledge for Climate Action

This pillar comprises four (4)  components: 

• The Scientific: based on what the science is revealing about global changes and those more specifically related to the Caribbean.
• The Climate Science curricular: utilizing what the science is saying into the curricular at the primary, high and tertiary educational levels.
• Shared services and materials: online tools, databases, meta-data, educational material, implementing methodologies and publications.
• Public Education to increase awareness and encourage appropriate responses to climate change geared to the general population.

Clusters for building Climate Resilience 

This is intended to pursue the aspirational goal of making the Caribbean the first Climate resilient region in the World. It involves developing regional and interregional partnerships to facilitate:

• A network of climate modelers to support planning for climate resilience.
• Investing in early warning systems, resilient infrastructure, appropriate land use, zoning rules, building codes and adequate social safety nets.
• Knowledge sharing on the integration of adaptation and disaster risk reduction, at the regional level with lesions for national planning initiatives.
• Arrangements for capacity building and technology transfer,

Institutional Strengthening for Climate Change Responses

 This requires establishing clusters for climate action to foster the multidisplinary and multisectoral whole of government approaches with designated focal points:

• CARICOM  high level decision making  at the Heads of Government and Ministerial levels.
• Regional/National - multisectoral consultations to share knowledge  and spur actions on climate change, including key sectors e.g. education, health  agriculture, including organic farming, energy, oceans, forests and finance. 
• Stakeholder sensitization fora: government, private sector, civil society, youth, the most vulnerable and marginalized communities and climate refugees. 
• New energy reforms and plans to provide  opportunities for countries to increase their share of renewable energies (principally hydro and wind) in energy matrixes, establish energy efficiency funds and promote the electrification of the transport sector.

Sustainable Financing for Climate Change  

This should be based on the development of a Regional Climate Action Plan. Access to finance remains one of the most important barriers to climate action.  Going forward, financial instruments and innovative financing mechanisms must be leveraged to mobilize adequate climate finance.  An enabling environment for private sector engagement and public-private collaborations must also be further enhanced to ensure the required pace and scale of Nationally Determined Conditions (NDC) for climate action. These require strong advocacy, political will and global solidarity: 

• Establishing a Regional Implementing Strategy for mobilizing resources based on regional priorities.  
• Developing a coordinated approach for accessing the various external sources of Climate Funds such as  accreditation under the Adaptation Fund and support to SIDS in attaining National Implementing Entity (NIE) status.
• Building financial resilience to mitigate economic costs of disaster including through risk transfer tools such as insurance.
• Accelerating financing access and contingency planning. 

Conclusion 

These are preliminary thoughts on the movement toward a Pan Caribbean Partnership for Climate Action. Is it necessary? Is it cost effective? Is there the climate leadership for this approach ? -- Why Not?