Port of Spain, November 23, 2023 – The Caribbean Climate Justice Alliance, including over 40 civil society organisations, grassroots leaders and activists, academics, creatives, the media and other non-state actors, is calling for urgent and accelerated implementation to tackle the climate crisis and address the needs of Caribbean small island developing states (SIDS) and other vulnerable countries ahead of COP28 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.  

The Alliance launched its “Caribbean Climate Justice and Resilience Agenda”, which outlines priority needs and actions by 2030 for vulnerable groups and wider civil society in Caribbean SIDS. These priorities include: 

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 organisations 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 equitable and social inclusive approaches to climate action
7. Promoting youth and intergenerational equity as core to the climate response
8. Integrating a rights-based and earth-centred approach in addressing all these priorities and ensuring climate justice

The focus of the Agenda recognises that climate change poses a severe threat to the Caribbean population, economic sectors and livelihoods, and natural ecosystems, and its impacts are often hardest for the most vulnerable and marginalised groups. These include small-scale farmers and fisherfolk, rural women producers, elderly and disabled persons, the income poor, Indigenous  and Afro-descendant communities, migrants and LGBTQIA+ persons. Further, 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. 

The Agenda seeks to amplify the voices of the most vulnerable groups on the frontlines of the climate crisis and catalyse actions for climate justice and local resilience in Caribbean SIDS. It was developed collaboratively by the Caribbean Climate Justice Alliance, through deliberative dialogues with vulnerable groups and wider civil society across the region. The process for development was led by the Caribbean Natural Resources Institute (CANARI), which currently serves as convenor and secretariat for the Alliance, with funding from the Open Society Foundations (OSF) and Green Climate Fund (GCF). 

CANARI and several other members of the Caribbean Climate Justice Alliance will be participating in COP28 from November 30-December 12 in Dubai, and the allies look forward to collaborating with public and private sector agencies and other non-state actors to champion climate justice and ensure key global decisions reflect the needs and priorities of Caribbean SIDS.

Download the Caribbean Climate Justice and Resilience Agenda at: https://bit.ly/3Rc6zR2