Although the government did not internationally launch the Climate Change Trust Fund this month as previously promised, we are encouraged to see the initiative finally gaining real momentum after so many years of false starts.
The important groundwork now being laid — both at home and on the world stage — suggests that the fund is closer than ever to becoming the functional, well-resourced institution it was designed to be.
The delays leading up to this point, however, have been most unfortunate. The fund was established in 2015 and a board was appointed in 2017, but eight long years passed before the government finally freed up the money that was legally earmarked for it.
Now, for the first time in the fund’s history, its bank account is being seeded with an estimated $5.5 million generated from the $10 environmental levy that overnight visitors have been paying since 2017.
That alone represents a major step forward after years of legislative fumbling, political interference and simple neglect even as the fund’s board members used their own money to get to work as best they could.
We are also encouraged that a robust VI delegation attended the United Nations Climate Change Conference this month in Brazil and used the opportunity to lay the groundwork to launch the fund next year.
The delegates’ climate-finance events with the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre — and their outreach to potential donors and other partners — show the kind of seriousness that has long been lacking from the government side.
As fund Chairman Ed Childs and government Climate Envoy Dr. Kedrick Pickering rightly emphasised in Brazil, a well-designed, independent climate fund backed by solid fiduciary standards is exactly the sort of mechanism international donors want to see before contributing to a small island territory like the VI.
But the delegates’ most important message may have been the simplest: The territory must also put its own skin in the game.
To that end, the environmental levy is key. Donors will be far more willing to fund a body that the VI itself is supporting responsibly.
And the CCTF’s entire design — a permanent, nationally owned institution meant to outlast politics — relies on levying the steady, predictable revenue that the law already provides.
The eco-levy funds, then, must continue flowing to the trust fund exactly as the law prescribes: 40 percent, every year, without fail.
Too often in the past, money earmarked for environmental measures or long-term planning has been swallowed by the central government’s general spending needs.
And too often, the CCTF has been treated as an afterthought — or worse, as an inconvenience to be reshaped, delayed or sidelined at the political whim of the day.
Those days must be over.
With climate impacts intensifying — from stronger hurricanes to worsening floods, heat waves, sargassum invasions and sea-level rise — the territory cannot afford any more drift or indecision.
The cost of inaction is already rising, and it will grow steeper with each passing year.
The CCTF offers a rare bright spot: a chance for the VI to build a stable, apolitical mechanism that can support substantive, science-based resilience work.
With proper funding, it can finally begin supporting the kind of projects that have been long envisioned: shoreline protection, mangrove restoration, renewable energy, flood-mitigation efforts, ecosystem conservation and more.
Yes, it is disappointing that the international launch will wait until 2026. But after a decade of delays and derailments, we prefer a careful, credible rollout next year to yet another rushed announcement that fails to deliver.
For the first time, the pieces are genuinely falling into place: a functioning board, growing public engagement through the ongoing climate-policy review, clearer regulations, and now actual seed money moving into the fund.
If leaders stay the course — and if the environmental levy continues to flow without political interference — the CCTF could finally become the pioneering institution it was meant to be.
The planet is warming. But with discipline, political will and consistent support, the VI can build a more climate-resilient future.
