In April, United States President Barack Obama denounced those who would deny the reality of climate change.
“Miami floods on a sunny day, and instead of doing anything about it, we’ve got elected officials throwing snowballs in the Senate,” he said, referring to Senator James Inhofe’s recent response to data showing 2014 was the warmest year ever recorded. (He literally threw a snowball.)
The same month, the Vatican joined the call to action on climate, too.
“In the face of the emergencies of human-induced climate change, social exclusion, and extreme poverty, we join together to declare that: Human-induced climate change is a scientific reality, and its decisive mitigation is a moral and religious imperative for humanity,” begins a declaration issued by Vatican officials.
The declaration goes on to urge world leaders to take decisive action to keep the global temperature increase below two degrees Celsius when the United Nations climate change conference, often called COP21, meets in December.
“We need to stop talking about climate change as if it’s coming. It’s here,” said United States Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Judith Enck at a recent green energy conference in St. Thomas.
Ms. Enck told conference attendees, who she called “green energy warriors,” that most scientists agree that not only is climate change happening, it’s caused by the burning of fossil fuels.
Ms. Enck said that it can be “a little maddening,” to see the region progressing so slowly when it comes to renewable energy, but said such efforts are crucial.
“There is no time to waste,” she said.
A snapshot
Climate Change Coordinator for the VI Angela Burnett-Penn wrote in her green paper on climate change in the territory that climate change has, indeed, already been impacting the territory. Since the mid-1990s there have been more warm days and fewer cooler ones; more frequent periods of drought; more hurricanes; and more flooding.
What’s more, according to the report, the VI’s heavily tourism-based economy and almost entirely coastal infrastructure and population mean that the territory is highly vulnerable to the global phenomenon.
“The majority of homes, tourism infrastructure and facilities, and the natural resources upon which the economy and society depend are found in the coastal zone where climate change impacts from stronger hurricanes, storm surges, sea level rise and flooding will be strongly felt,” according to the report.
These risks are common throughout the region, said George de Berdt Romily, who has, along with the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre, helped create climate change adaptation legislation like the VI’s Climate Change Trust Fund Act.
The act, which was passed in March, addresses what Mr. de Berdt Romily said is the biggest challenge to adapting to climate change.
“Funding is the real critical problem here,” he said, adding that too often leaders have issues that are seen as more pressing and issues related to climate change get relegated to the back burner.
Eventually, however, climate change issues will become critical, he said.
“We’re going to see more situations arising where they have no choice,” he said, recalling disasters like Hurricane Ivan wiping out 90 percent of Grenada’s housing.
“Gone are the days where we can bury our heads in the sand and say it’s not our problem,” he said.
Caribbean leaders have seen the results of more extreme storms and other climate events as signs of what’s to come and sought to prepare for the worst. In fact, the region has had a Framework for Achieving Development Resilient to Climate Change since 2009, when CARICOM heads of government approved the framework formally.
Part of that document called for “mainstreaming” climate change adaptation by incorporating it into all aspects of development and governance.
The Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency has taken up that challenge by funding pilot projects to create Climate Change Adaptation plans for specific communities. In the Virgin Islands, Sea Cows Bay was selected as the pilot community for the project.
In partnership with the Disaster Management Department, SCB will attempt to combat the effects of climate change with Sustained Mitigation, Adaptation and Resilient Techniques, or SMART.
The SMART programme took place last year in SCB, and included workshops for residents to share information about the community’s specific climate-change-related risks, the resources available to deal with those risks, and some key desired results, all of which were incorporated into a draft of the SCB Climate Change Adaptation Plan.
In the short term, the plan seeks to build on the community’s existing network of mangroves to help protect against risks like storm surges using volunteer planting activities. Medium and long-term activities include implementing development restrictions depending on the geology of the property to prevent landslides; construction of a bulkhead or other structure to protect areas of reclaimed land from flooding; and creating a maintenance plan for clearing ghuts and other drainage.
The SMART programme also included energy audits for three SCB schools, and Community Emergency Response Training for teachers and others in the community.
The draft is currently under review by CDEMA officials, said DDM Information and Education Manager Philomena Robertson. While the SMART project is formally over, it’s expected that once the plan is finalised, it will be adopted by the community.
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