Rashaed Esson

Staff Writer

The Caribbean Natural Resources Institute (CANARI) informed that the Caribbean Climate Justice Alliance, in preparation for the upcoming annual COP28 in 2023, launched its “Caribbean Climate Justice and Resilience Agenda,” outlining the priorities for climate justice and resilience in vulnerable Caribbean small island developing states (SIDS).

In a press release, CANARI highlighted that the agenda recognizes the major threat of climate change to the region as well as aims to louden the voices of the at-risk groups “on the frontlines of the climate crisis and catalyze actions for climate justice and local resilience in the Caribbean SIDS.”

The priorities stated under the agenda are:

1. Curbing emissions to limit global temperature

increase to 1.5 ̊C

2. Scaling up locally-led solutions for adaptation and

loss and damage

3. Improving access to and delivery of climate finance

for frontline communities, small and micro enterprises, and civil society organizations as part of a ‘whole of society’ approach

4. Scaling up just, nature-based solutions for resilience

5. Supporting a just transition for pro-poor, inclusive,

sustainable and resilient development

6. Promoting gender equity and social inclusion

approaches to climate action

7. Promoting youth and intergenerational equity as

core to the climate response

8. Integrating a rights-based and earth-centered

approach in addressing all these priorities and ensuring climate justice

The at-risk groups referred to in the release include small-scale farmers and fisherfolk, rural women producers, income-poor people, elderly and disabled people, Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities, migrants, and LGBTQIA+ people.

Being cognizant of the severity of the effects of climate change on the Caribbean, CANARI referred to the fact that the very existence of the region is on the line.

“If greenhouse gas emissions continue unabated and global temperature exceeds 1.5 ̊C, the impacts of rising sea levels, more intense hurricanes, rainfall variability, ocean acidification, and other changes threaten the very existence of our way of life in the Caribbean and other SIDS that have contributed the least to global emissions.”