From:TheBahamasWeekly.com
Climate change and flooding threaten 4.2 million people on Caribbean and Pacific islands
By Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)
May 20, 2017 - 11:37:04 AM
BELIZE CITY, Belize – A new study
by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) estimates that 4.2 million
people in Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in the Caribbean and in
the Pacific are living in areas that are prone to flooding due to
rising sea levels.
In addition to coastal erosion, rising sea levels are expected to
negatively impact economic output and employment and could aggravate
inflation and cause an increase in government debt, according to the
study, A Blue Urban Agenda: Adapting to Climate Change in the Coastal Cities of Caribbean and Pacific Small Island Developing States.
“Caribbean and Pacific coastal cities are on the frontlines of
climate change,” said Michael G. Donovan, Senior Urban Specialist at the
IDB, co-author of the study. “It is critical to adapt and improve the
resilience of cities in coastal zones, especially those experiencing
rapid urbanization. Mayors in port cities across the globe could benefit
from the policies that Small Island Developing States are developing as
their governments respond to coastal transformation,” he added.
One out of five residents of Caribbean and Pacific SIDS live in
low-elevation coastal zones, which are defined as areas with elevations
less than 10 meters above sealevel. This is most extreme in The Bahamas
and the Republic of the Marshall Islands, where over 80 percent of the
population lives at low elevations, the study said.
The good news is that the international community has begun
responding to the challenge. The study reviews aid and private sector
flows totalling US$55.6 billion provided to Caribbean and Pacific SIDS
over a 20-year period ending in 2015 and found that increasing emphasis
has recently been placed on comprehensive programs for strengthening
coastal city resiliency.
The report also analyzes how Caribbean and Pacific SIDS have
leveraged nearly $800 million in green climate funding to support
coastal resilience. “The donor community and the SIDS have been
innovative in their efforts to solve this problem in the context of what
is known as the ‘Blue Urban Agenda’. The challenge facing SIDS
government officials is investing in protection of their highly
vulnerable coastal cities before the damage occurs,” said Michelle
Mycoo, lead author from the University of West Indies, St. Augustine,
located in Trinidad and Tobago.
The study reviewed the efforts made by Caribbean and Pacific SIDS to
implement adaptation strategies aimed at reducing vulnerability and
enhancing sustainability. It shows an increasing emphasis on urban
governance and institutional capacity building within city planning
agencies.
The report also includes several policy recommendations for making
towns and cities more resilient to climate change. Those measures
include improving coastal planning, land reclamation, coastal setbacks,
enforcement of building codes, climate-proofing infrastructure, mangrove
reforestation, and coastal surveying and monitoring.
The report analyzed more than 50 projects in SIDS financed by the
IDB, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), World
Bank, UN-Habitat, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), German
Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ), Asian Development Bank,
European Union, UK Department for International Development (DFID),
UNDP,CARICOM, Australian Agency for International Development (AUSAid),
and the Pacific Community.
These projects are located in Bridgetown (Barbados), Kingston
(Jamaica), Suva (Fiji), Majuro (Marshall Islands), Nassau (Bahamas),
Port-au-Prince (Haiti), Port Moresby (Papua New Guinea), and other
coastal cities.
This is the first report from the IDB to compare coastal cities in
ecologically fragile Caribbean and Pacific Small Island Developing
States. The IDB plans to share lessons learned from SIDS with Brazil,
where 13.5 million people live in low-elevation coastal zones.
A Blue Urban Agenda: Adapting to Climate Change in the Coastal Cities of Caribbean and Pacific Small Island Developing States
provides strategies to implement commitments for SIDS in international
agreements, such as the Small Island Developing States Accelerated
Modalities of Action resolution (Samoa Pathway), COP21, the Sustainable
Development Goals, and Habitat III. The report follows the IDB Group’s
announcement last year that it would increase the volume of
climate-related financing to 30 percent of operational approvals by the
end of 2020.
About us
The Inter-American Development Bank
is devoted to improving lives. Established in 1959, the IDB is a
leading source of long-term financing for economic, social and
institutional development in Latin America and the Caribbean. The IDB
also conducts cutting-edge research and provides policy advice,
technical assistance and training to public and private sector clients
throughout the region.
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