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

Photo Credit: Carl Court/Getty Images North America/TNS. Retrieved from thebrunswicknews.com

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.