Hurricane Beryl arrived yesterday in south Texas after pummeling several Caribbean countries. It is one of the earliest hurricanes to arrive due to intense climate-warmed waters which fueled this early storm, wreaking havoc in communities and costing lives and livelihoods.
When the Stimson Center developed the Climate and Ocean Risk Vulnerability Initiative (CORVI) in 2019 to help island states prepare and develop road maps towards climate resilience the first Caribbean nations we worked with were Jamaica, and Saint Lucia followed by Barbados, St. Kitts and Nevis, Dominica, Belize, and two weeks ago we kicked off the 16th CORVI assessment in the Caribbean island nation of Aruba.
Least responsible and most affected, island nations are on the frontlines of the climate crisis. Combined, the Caribbean countries’ share of global CO2 emissions is just 0.3%, yet they face increasingly early and intense hurricanes, rising levels of extreme heat, and other climate threats to the region’s people and economies.
Yet these countries have limited financial resources to build resilience before a devastating climate event occurs. Too often just as they right their communities from the economic losses of the last climate-fueled hurricane, heat dome, or tropical storm surge, another one comes along and they spiral downward, and this is the result of a climate crisis they did not create. Leaders in the region, led by Barbados’ Prime Minister Mia Mottley, have undertaken creative efforts to build adaptation and called for international climate finance reform needed to unlock funds to build back better. This was front and center during the recent SIDS4 meeting in Antigua and Barbuda last month, during which Saint Vincent and the Grenadines’ Minister for Tourism declared that “small island developing states are often debating a ‘Sophie’s choice’ between sustainable development and rebuilding from the ravages of natural hazards.” An integrated and holistic understanding of climate risk and vulnerability, which CORVI provides, can help local decision-makers and international partners best prioritize action, identify solutions, and strengthen coastal climate resilience in the Caribbean.
For Jamaica, Beryl intensified to a category 5 hurricane with the chief meteorologist at AccuWeather calling it “the strongest and most dangerous hurricane threat that Jamaica has faced, probably, in decades.” The storm brought more than 12 hours of heavy rain to Kingston and the surrounding areas, resulting in significant flooding and storm surge. Touring the parish of Clarendon, west of Kingston, Prime Minister Andrew Holness cited poor drainage as a major contributor to flooding in the area. The CORVI assessment in Jamaica highlighted poor drainage, exacerbated by forest loss, urban development, and limited waste management as a key driver of flood risk in Kingston. The assessment also noted how the loss of coastal ecosystems such as mangroves and coral reefs increases vulnerability to storm surges.
The CORVI assessment also cited the vulnerability of critical transport infrastructure, including roads and Norman Manley International Airport, to hurricanes and other extreme weather events. In the days since the storm passed the island, Jamaica’s National Works Authority received 250 reports of roads blocked by fallen trees or other debris, impeding response and recovery efforts, and Beryl ripped away part of the roof of Norman Manley International Airport. To address these and other vulnerabilities, the CORVI assessment identified three priority areas for action:
- Build resilience in marine ecosystems and city watersheds.
- Improve urban city planning.
- Continue to address social issues related to vulnerability and integrate them into disaster response planning.
Barbados also took a serious hit from Hurricane Beryl, which significantly damaged coastal infrastructure, particularly along the south coast, and the capital city of Bridgetown. Prime Minister Mia Mottley highlighted the urgent need to improve the nation’s weak island infrastructure and continued beach erosion. She noted insufficient coastal protection of the Bridgetown Fishing Harbour and commented that the island nation needed improved education within the community about climate change and climate resilience.
The CORVI assessment for Barbados found similar areas of risk and need for action.
The assessment highlighted significant ecological and economic vulnerabilities, reflecting the country’s high level of reliance on coastal and marine activities that are increasingly under threat from climate change. Two of the three highest risks in the assessment put a spotlight on Barbados’ extensive shoreline development and the island’s rapid coastal erosion, especially on the southern coast. The assessment also noted that the increasingly early hurricane season is shrinking the window for beaches to recover after spring tide seasons every year. This erosion, compounded by the loss of coastal ecosystems, further increases the vulnerability of critical coastal infrastructure, including Deepwater Harbor, hospitals, hotels, coastal highways, desalination plants, and basic service (electricity, health, public safety) infrastructure. To address these and other vulnerabilities, the CORVI for Barbados assessment identified three priority areas for action:
- Protect existing marine ecosystems and restore degraded ecosystems, especially coral reefs.
- Diversify the Barbadian economy through targeted support for key sectors, including manufacturing, agriculture, renewable energy, and diverse forms of tourism.
- Develop marine heatwave (MHW) response plans by improving overall marine ecosystem health, improving the early warning of MHWs, and developing response measures during MHWs.
Although Saint Lucia largely avoided major damage from Hurricane Beryl, the storm brought heavy rains and strong winds to the island. Prime Minister Philip Pierre noted that Beryl exposed gaps in the country’s disaster preparedness, particularly around communication. The 2019 CORVI for Saint Lucia cited the need for improved local planning which feeds directly into the need for local and national communication. By enhancing the risk management and planning capabilities at the local levels and establishing new local and city level agencies to address adaptation and planning, it will improve crucial planning and local-level adaptive capacity.
All of these coastal island nations share economies dependent on sun, sand, and sea tourism that bring millions of tourists to their shores. They also share a loss of ecosystems, unsustainable coastal development, aging infrastructure, and an increase in climate fueled storms and heat events.
The damages caused by Hurricane Beryl across the Caribbean are another reminder of the urgency of filling the gap between adaptation finance needs and available funding for the Global South, which the UN Environment Programme estimates at between $194 and $366 billion per year. The storm is also a reminder that financial mechanisms are complex and often don’t reach those most in need. Jamaica’s $150 million catastrophe bond – meant to insure against the costs of a natural disaster like hurricane Beryl – will not pay the country a dime for recovery as the storm did not hit the precisely defined levels of air pressure that would trigger a payment. That kind of definition of insanity for the countries on the frontlines of the climate crisis in the Caribbean and around the globe makes no sense. With the hurricane season underway, these nations need detailed resilience plans and greater levels of accessible, affordable, and transparent finance and they need it now before their futures are literally washed away.
Don’t Let Their Futures Wash Away
Hurricane Beryl Shows Urgency of Climate Adaptation in the Caribbean
By Natalie Fiertz • Sally Yozell
Resilience & Sustainability
Hurricane Beryl swept through the Caribbean, damaging coastal communities across the region. The impacts of the storm underscore the vulnerabilities identified in Stimson’s CORVI assessments in Jamaica, Barbados, and Saint Lucia and emphasizes the need for urgent action to build climate resilience. Leaders in these countries have repeatedly called for international support to avoid a stark choice between investing in their futures and rebuilding from a crisis they did not create.
Hurricane Beryl arrived yesterday in south Texas after pummeling several Caribbean countries. It is one of the earliest hurricanes to arrive due to intense climate-warmed waters which fueled this early storm, wreaking havoc in communities and costing lives and livelihoods.
When the Stimson Center developed the Climate and Ocean Risk Vulnerability Initiative (CORVI) in 2019 to help island states prepare and develop road maps towards climate resilience the first Caribbean nations we worked with were Jamaica, and Saint Lucia followed by Barbados, St. Kitts and Nevis, Dominica, Belize, and two weeks ago we kicked off the 16th CORVI assessment in the Caribbean island nation of Aruba.
Least responsible and most affected, island nations are on the frontlines of the climate crisis. Combined, the Caribbean countries’ share of global CO2 emissions is just 0.3%, yet they face increasingly early and intense hurricanes, rising levels of extreme heat, and other climate threats to the region’s people and economies.
Yet these countries have limited financial resources to build resilience before a devastating climate event occurs. Too often just as they right their communities from the economic losses of the last climate-fueled hurricane, heat dome, or tropical storm surge, another one comes along and they spiral downward, and this is the result of a climate crisis they did not create. Leaders in the region, led by Barbados’ Prime Minister Mia Mottley, have undertaken creative efforts to build adaptation and called for international climate finance reform needed to unlock funds to build back better. This was front and center during the recent SIDS4 meeting in Antigua and Barbuda last month, during which Saint Vincent and the Grenadines’ Minister for Tourism declared that “small island developing states are often debating a ‘Sophie’s choice’ between sustainable development and rebuilding from the ravages of natural hazards.” An integrated and holistic understanding of climate risk and vulnerability, which CORVI provides, can help local decision-makers and international partners best prioritize action, identify solutions, and strengthen coastal climate resilience in the Caribbean.
For Jamaica, Beryl intensified to a category 5 hurricane with the chief meteorologist at AccuWeather calling it “the strongest and most dangerous hurricane threat that Jamaica has faced, probably, in decades.” The storm brought more than 12 hours of heavy rain to Kingston and the surrounding areas, resulting in significant flooding and storm surge. Touring the parish of Clarendon, west of Kingston, Prime Minister Andrew Holness cited poor drainage as a major contributor to flooding in the area. The CORVI assessment in Jamaica highlighted poor drainage, exacerbated by forest loss, urban development, and limited waste management as a key driver of flood risk in Kingston. The assessment also noted how the loss of coastal ecosystems such as mangroves and coral reefs increases vulnerability to storm surges.
The CORVI assessment also cited the vulnerability of critical transport infrastructure, including roads and Norman Manley International Airport, to hurricanes and other extreme weather events. In the days since the storm passed the island, Jamaica’s National Works Authority received 250 reports of roads blocked by fallen trees or other debris, impeding response and recovery efforts, and Beryl ripped away part of the roof of Norman Manley International Airport. To address these and other vulnerabilities, the CORVI assessment identified three priority areas for action:
Barbados also took a serious hit from Hurricane Beryl, which significantly damaged coastal infrastructure, particularly along the south coast, and the capital city of Bridgetown. Prime Minister Mia Mottley highlighted the urgent need to improve the nation’s weak island infrastructure and continued beach erosion. She noted insufficient coastal protection of the Bridgetown Fishing Harbour and commented that the island nation needed improved education within the community about climate change and climate resilience.
The CORVI assessment for Barbados found similar areas of risk and need for action.
The assessment highlighted significant ecological and economic vulnerabilities, reflecting the country’s high level of reliance on coastal and marine activities that are increasingly under threat from climate change. Two of the three highest risks in the assessment put a spotlight on Barbados’ extensive shoreline development and the island’s rapid coastal erosion, especially on the southern coast. The assessment also noted that the increasingly early hurricane season is shrinking the window for beaches to recover after spring tide seasons every year. This erosion, compounded by the loss of coastal ecosystems, further increases the vulnerability of critical coastal infrastructure, including Deepwater Harbor, hospitals, hotels, coastal highways, desalination plants, and basic service (electricity, health, public safety) infrastructure. To address these and other vulnerabilities, the CORVI for Barbados assessment identified three priority areas for action:
Although Saint Lucia largely avoided major damage from Hurricane Beryl, the storm brought heavy rains and strong winds to the island. Prime Minister Philip Pierre noted that Beryl exposed gaps in the country’s disaster preparedness, particularly around communication. The 2019 CORVI for Saint Lucia cited the need for improved local planning which feeds directly into the need for local and national communication. By enhancing the risk management and planning capabilities at the local levels and establishing new local and city level agencies to address adaptation and planning, it will improve crucial planning and local-level adaptive capacity.
All of these coastal island nations share economies dependent on sun, sand, and sea tourism that bring millions of tourists to their shores. They also share a loss of ecosystems, unsustainable coastal development, aging infrastructure, and an increase in climate fueled storms and heat events.
The damages caused by Hurricane Beryl across the Caribbean are another reminder of the urgency of filling the gap between adaptation finance needs and available funding for the Global South, which the UN Environment Programme estimates at between $194 and $366 billion per year. The storm is also a reminder that financial mechanisms are complex and often don’t reach those most in need. Jamaica’s $150 million catastrophe bond – meant to insure against the costs of a natural disaster like hurricane Beryl – will not pay the country a dime for recovery as the storm did not hit the precisely defined levels of air pressure that would trigger a payment. That kind of definition of insanity for the countries on the frontlines of the climate crisis in the Caribbean and around the globe makes no sense. With the hurricane season underway, these nations need detailed resilience plans and greater levels of accessible, affordable, and transparent finance and they need it now before their futures are literally washed away.
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