World Bank Warns Caribbean on Climate Change

The World Bank has warned that a rise in sea level could have “catastrophic effects” for the Caribbean and would affect the poorest and most vulnerable in the region. A new study by the Washington-based financial institution has urged Caribbean nations to link risk management with social, economic and environmental initiatives in order to increase their resilience to climate change.

“Salt-water erosion and coastal flooding will be just a couple of the most serious consequences of this phenomenon,” warns the study, noting that 70 per cent of the Caribbean population lives on the coast. It noted that in all of the main cities in the Caribbean, millions of inhabitants are less than a mile from the coast—“including, obviously, highly vulnerable cities like Port-au-Prince, Haiti and Havana, Cuba.”

The World Bank says that if the sea continues to rise at the current rate, Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic, will be one of the five cities most affected at a global level by climate change in 2050—after Alexandria, Barranquilla, Naples and Sapporo. “The Dominican Republic is already taking action to face this great challenge, but there is still much to be done,” says Jerry Meier, an expert in climate change for the World Bank.

Noting that tourism and agriculture are “the root of many Caribbean economies,” the report cautions that coastal erosion caused by rising sea levels is “a real threat for the tourist industry.” It says that coastal erosion is “already a reality” faced by St George’s, Grenada, Kingstown, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Castries, St Lucia, and “above all in Cane Field, Dominica, where the airport already floods.”

In addition, the report says that the Caribbean faces the problem of salt-water infiltration into its freshwater, noting that the region relies heavily on rain water to refresh its freshwater reserves, “which are threatened by a rise in global sea levels. “If they don’t act quickly, many countries face the possibility of having to finance the costly process of desalination,” it adds.

To improve their climate resilience, the World Bank has produced a series of recommendations. It urges that land planning be incorporated more into social programmes “to tackle how exposed they are to risk.” The bank also recommends that an economic recovery and diversification plan be established following a disaster, and that there be more investment in flood controls and preparation for changes in rainfall volume and frequency.

Source: Guardian Media