From right: Prime Minister of St. Lucia Allen Chastanet listens attentively to President of the Caribbean Development Bank Dr. Warren Smith.
The economic impact of climate change is placing yet another heavy burden on already reeling Small Island Developing States.
St. Lucia’s Prime Minister Allen Chastanet made this clear on Monday as the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF) launched its tenth anniversary
celebrations at the Caribbean Development Bank.
He pointed out that while many Caribbean islands were elevated to the status of middle income countries, the high debt levels continued, and with the additional load of dealing with the fallout from climate change, the struggle to keep their heads above water continued.
“We are currently unviable. We cannot afford to deal with what we have to deal with now, as returns to climate change. The things that we’re being asked to borrow money for – how do we afford it?
“I’m not here to beg. I’m saying I think we all have a responsibility. If we accept that climate change is real, how is it that these countries that did not create the problem in the first place, and yet are being impacted so severely, are being asked to do so by themselves. CCRIF is a great example where we’re prepared to meet and do our part, but there’s so much more that we’re going to need to be able to do,” Chastanet said.
Applauding the resolution reached in Paris during the 2015 Climate Change Conference, he stated however that recognition alone was not going to be the solution to the problem.
“We’re being promised US$100 billion, we all know how that game is going to play. In 2020 that number will become a number, and then we’re going to have discussions on how we’re gonna draw down on it, and there will be all kinds of problems, and meanwhile for the SIDS the reality is now,” Chastanet said.
In addition, he explained that Caribbean states were finding themselves in a cycle of debt, not created by their own actions, but by what was happening on the international scene. (JMB)