‘We liken the issue of climate crisis to an injustice’: Caribbean leaders demand action

Patricia Scotland remembers when she first started talking about the connections between climate and debt.

The newly elected secretary-general of the Commonwealth of Nations, the political grouping made up mostly of former territories of the British Empire, Scotland had seen firsthand how one external shock like a hurricane could devastate a country, plunging it deeper into debt with no recourse but to borrow money at rates it could not afford.

Her own country, Dominica, lost 226% of its Gross Domestic Product in 2017 when Category 5 Hurricane Maria plowed through before devastating the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico. Two years later, Hurricane Dorian inflicted losses of about $3.4 billion on The Bahamas, an amount equal to one-quarter of the nation’s GDP, according to the Inter-American Development Bank. The GDP loss was the equivalent of the U.S. losing the combined economic outputs of California, Texas and Florida.

“All of these countries are starting to think, ‘Am I going to be hit this time?’ ” Scotland said in an interview with the Miami Herald. “We know it’s not ‘if,’ it’s ‘when.’ And so this reality, which is only present in the Caribbean, is starting to impinge on the consciousness of other countries because no more can they say [you’re crying] wolf, because the wolf is here and he’s eating our lunch.”

It hasn’t been easy to get developed countries or the world’s development banks to see the vulnerability of populations to extreme climate events in countries that on paper are middle-income, but in reality are just as much in need as their equally vulnerable, poorer neighbors.

“Do you know how many people would laugh when I said that we would fight for a universal vulnerability index... because of the shocks we were facing and would face, and we needed to change the international financial instruments that we have?” Scotland said. “Because although they might have been fit for 1945, they are not fit for today.

“People thought I was some sort of impractical dreamer,” she added. “This issue was not accepted globally. People were still arguing that there was no real correlation between the climate crisis that our region had suffered and debt. Well, that’s gone now because the empirical evidence shows directly that there is a correlation between the level of indebtedness of our members and the climate.”

Last week, as Scotland joined 20 Caribbean Community leaders for a summit in Trinidad and Tobago, the threat of extreme weather and climate shocks, along with the financial fallout, was very much at the center of discussions.

“This issue of climate change and its impact on us is really too crucial for us not to get people to understand,” said Dominica Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit, the current chairman of the Caribbean Community regional bloc known as CARICOM.

Skerrit noted that despite committing in 2009 to mobilize $100 billion a year in financing for climate impacts, developed countries have not met their commitments.

“We liken the issue of climate crisis to an injustice,” he said. “And we must not relent in our fight and ensuring that we continue to represent the interests of not only Caribbean region but all countries impacted by the climate crisis.”

The three-day summit, which also commemorated the 50th anniversary of CARICOM, was attended by United Nations Secretary General António Guterres, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Rwanda President Paul Kagame. Guterres and Kagame have been vocal advocates for financing for developing countries to mitigate against climate change, a call Blinken said the Biden administration has heard.

“Small island developing states need support in debt relief and need support in concessional funding and because they are middle-income countries, they are excluded from that. That needs to change,” Guterres said during a press conference in Port-of-Spain. “Countries need to be able to invest in their education systems, in their health systems. Today Africa spends more money in paying debts than in their health system and this is the kind of injustice that should not prevail in today’s world.”

Kagame, who attended as chairman of the Commonwealth, said small developing countries face similar financial difficulties after a disaster.

“Countries like ours can’t print money when we face a crisis,” he told Caribbean leaders. “We have to borrow. Yet some of us are no longer eligible for concessional interest rates.”

Blinken highlighted recent commitments by the Biden administration, including the creation of the U.S.‑Caribbean Partnership to Address the Climate Crisis 2030. The program, launched last year, focuses on making energy systems more resilient, affordable and cleaner. He noted that during a meeting between Caribbean leaders and Vice President Kamala Harris last month in The Bahamas, the U.S. made available an additional $20 million in climate funding to the bloc and the Dominican Republic.

“We’re working to strengthen disaster preparedness and response, improving early warning systems, developing risk maps that predict the areas that are most likely to be hit by storms, helping countries develop new tools to adapt to emerging challenges,” he said.

The U.S. is also working to expand access to international finance, he said.

“We’ve heard loud and clear that the scale and disproportionate impact of the climate crisis demands a new approach. We agree,” Blinken said. “We said that we would press financial institutions to allow countries to defer debt payments in the event of climate shocks and natural disasters. At our urging, the World Bank agreed to offer debt deferment clauses in their loans by 2025. We’ve made a similar commitment in the United States. We’re urging other lenders to step up with us.“

Scotland, who won a second-term last year as head of the 56-nation club, said more needs to be done globally.

She echoed Skerrit’s point on developed countries’ failure to meet their financial commitments, all while temperatures are getting warmer and sea levels are rising.

She emphasized that the Caribbean has been disproportionately affected by climate change, and is “the most climate exposed and heavily indebted region in the world.”

“Here we are in 2023 and it’s still, 14 years later, hasn’t been delivered,” Scotland said. “We know we need $4 trillion in order to really respond to the climate crisis that the world is in, and how much have we got? $230 million.”

Since she became secretary-general in 2016, the Commonwealth has put $276.21 million in climate financing in the hands of 19 nations, Scotland said. The funds came out of an initiative launched by former Guyana President Bharrat Jagdeo, who led a Commonwealth expert group on climate finance, resulting in the proposal for the Climate Finance Access Hub.

Of the $276.21 million, Caribbean countries have received $52 million, Scotland told leaders during the summit

She commended Caribbean leaders for being at the forefront of the climate and debt financing debate as they push for new financing mechanisms to help countries experiencing climate shocks.

“We are at a pivotal moment, and we must celebrate that those people who were not accepting that change was necessary are now coming to the table,” Scotland said. “Because at last, people are realizing this is not something for tomorrow.”