Managing climate change in the Caribbean

Climate change is one of the greatest challenges facing the world today. Changing weather patterns, coastal erosion, and the destruction of reefs and natural habitats – along with other environmental impacts – make up our new reality. These are likely to become more pronounced as the years wear on, with possible dire consequences for island state populations like ours.

Climate disruption is expected to cause more intense disasters and even new types of catastrophes.

Consider heat waves and drought, salt water intrusion into fresh groundwater, increased rainfall and more powerful weather patterns – the list seems endless and very daunting – to say the least.

To make matters worse, indiscriminate human behaviour can worsen the negative effects of certain types of disasters, such as heavy flooding. Time and again, we have been urged to adopt responsible waste disposal habits. Yet, we ignore these calls and continue to use watercourses, pavements and abandoned lots as garbage dumps.

Our general apathy and dismissive attitude towards impending crises have unfortunately become quite ingrained – but local and global phenomena demand that we treat every threat as a serious possibility.

Given the devastating floods that have been occurring with increasing frequency, the start of the rainy season must give some cause for worry. While flooding can result from natural circumstances like heavy and/or prolonged rainfall, which can be especially disastrous in flat, low-lying areas, human activities and environmental degradation have played the biggest part in increasing both the frequency and severity of flooding.

Citizens can – and should – play an active part in protecting our environment. Although it has been heartening to see some increased awareness about the environment, the pace of change is too slow. Personal responsibility plays a big part in driving societal change, after all, there’s no time like the present.

One simple way to have a huge impact would be to stop the irresponsible dumping of unwanted and waste material. The repercussions of littering, both small-scale (bottles and styrofoam boxes) and large-scale (appliances and other forms of white waste) can be severe.

We need to do better as a country if we are to stem the ill effects of another natural disaster. Can we do more to close the gap in our emergency response times? Are citizens sufficiently educated about what to do in an emergency? Are our first responders fully resourced and well-equipped? Are we consistently building resilience and capacity within our communities?

As TT Chamber president Kiran Maharaj said in her address on September 5 at a meeting of the Caribbean Climate Investment Programme, "Climate change presents us with a monumental challenge, one that affects not only our environment but also poses a risk to our economy and the well-being of our societies."

TT is one of 174 other nations that signed the Paris Climate Change Agreement in 2016. This signalled our country’s commitment to adopting measures to address climate change through sustainable and targeted domestic policies. We must ensure that this is progressively addressed. In addition, TT committed to the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, inclusive of SDG 13, which is targeted to limit and adapt to climate change.

Small Island Developing States such as the islands of our region are under particular threat.

Economies are small and often highly dependent upon tourism and agriculture – two areas that suffer greatly from natural disasters.

This new normal of weather patterns has long-term repercussions which make the implementation management and adaptation measures, including emergency response and business continuity plans, critical to our well-being.