President of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), Dr. William Warren Smith
Early investment can reduce economic damage and loss of lives and Caribbean islands must take early action to receive the full support of the development agencies and planning.
President of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), Dr. William Warren Smith, made these comments during the virtual launch of “State of the Caribbean Climate Report – Information for Resilience Building”. He further explained that early investment and early action were important in implementing safeguard measures and investing in the appropriate climate-resilient infra-structure.
Dr. Smith added that climate change adaptation and mitigation are more effective when they are fully integrated into a comprehensive and sustainable development framework.
He noted that climate events will become more variable, more intense, and damaging for the predominant small island states of the Caribbean. The regional bank leader said that he had a front-row view of the catastrophic impact of hurricanes and this reinforced his conviction that climate change must remain at the top of CDB’s assistance agenda and underscored the urgency of Caribbean governments building climate change resilience.
Dr. Smith commented on the special significance of the Caribbean Climate report to CDB. He explained that it contained a wealth of current climate data with informed evidence based planning, design and implementation of appropriate adaptation measures. He highlighted the work of the CDB which has allocated US$450 million to offer increased access to concessional financing for disaster risk management and climate resilience. The bank also introduced new tools in water and transport sectors and facilitated access and the use of more robust data to better analyse and assess risk.
The Caribbean Climate Report provides critical analysis and discussion on Caribbean climate, including, observed variability and trends, recent extreme events, projections for key variables, observed and potential impacts for climate sensitive
sectors as well as an overview of climate information and services within the region.