By Kimberly Ramkhalawan
November 22, 2022
The Caribbean Climate Smart Accelerator (CCSA) is choosing to view this year’s Conference of the Parties, (COP 27) as having some wins for the region. And according to CEO and UNFCCC Global Ambassador, Racquel Moses, while Loss and Damage was an area heavily advocated to be on this year’s agenda, she says an historic agreement to establish a loss and damage fund for climate-vulnerable countries was also agreed upon.
This will lead to the subsequent development and operationalization of the Santiago Network for Loss and Damage (SNLD), which provides the technical framework and pathway to funding for climate-vulnerable countries, something the CCSA anticipates setting a time table and having the full framework finalized and by effect COP 28. So far, over US$230M in new pledges have been made to fund climate change adaptation projects in developing countries.
The United States and European Union had resisted the argument, fearing spiralling liabilities, but changed their position during the COP27 summit. The EU has argued that China – the world’s second-biggest economy, but classified by the U.N. as a developing country – should also pay into it.
A few governments have made relatively small but symbolic funding commitments for loss and damage: Denmark, Belgium, Germany and Scotland, plus the EU. China has not committed any payment.
To Moses, she considers this a win at the level of COP27, and admitting seeing “Loss and Damage” having reached that far in getting an agreement, a pleasant surprise. However, she notes “the devil is in the details” and what is seen at the advocacy level is different from truly accessing concessional financing, a tedious process for nations looking to tap into the Green Climate Fund, GCF. The UNFCCC Global Ambassador notes, any one looking in, will see that different Caribbean islands have received varying amounts of funds, this she says lies in how much they have negotiated or applied for from the fund, making the difficulty in accessing the money a reality to many, as these things often take lengthy periods of time. Its matters like this she says closes the gap, only when awareness is done at the advocacy level. She says countries need to ready themselves to actually apply for the money. And one of the purposes outlined by the CCSA, is to bring awareness to countries of the funding available through grants, with the latest being the Earth Shot prize of £100M.
This year the CCSA is an official nominator of the Earth Shot prize which goes to Caribbean individuals, communities, businesses and organisations whose solutions make the most progress towards achieving the five Earthshots including, protecting and restoring nature, cleaning our air, reviving our oceans, building a waste-free world, and fixing our climate. Last year saw The Bahamas’ Coral Vita as winners, funding the restoration off the coast of Grand Bahama.
Interestingly, while she calls for more advocacy, one area she says the region has lapsed, is finding an audience with the voters in the countries that needs action. She says while talk happens with the leaders, they are empowered by those who vote for them, and those who vote, need to become aware of things that matter to the region in order to make actual progress and without this, Moses says “leaders are not bounded by a morale imperative to act”.
Through the CCSA, the region has been earmarked for becoming the world’s first Climate Safe Zone, this includes establishing innovations such as a climate-smart map which falls into its Global South Innovations. Pushing this within the region, means utilizing something Moses describes as a resilience scorecard through an initiative called the Island Resilience Action Challenge, which tracks areas of need for developmental financing.
For this, Moses says the CCSA intends to partner with the Caribbean Development Bank even as it rolls out its Recovery Duration Adjuster financing tool (RDA), which takes into consideration a country’s vulnerability to recover post a climate related disaster, and not using the GDP per capita to access concessionary financing.
However, while research might be ongoing as to the projects Caribbean nations need and the ideas for making the region climate smart might be endless, Moses says part of the issue of funding is whether what is required is commercially viable. In such cases, funding is not needed, and therefore prompts the need for projects to meet the “fit-for purpose funding” criteria, as financing stems mainly grant and philanthropic funding to take many of the region’s climate-resilient projects from concept to bankability.
Such projects have been taking shape in the region in recent times, such as Dominica’s Green hydrogen plant, and Barbados’ 3Rs water project. But Moses says there are many multi-facet projects taking place regionally, with at least twenty of what she calls ‘moon shot or big ticket’ projects on the cards, with net export of renewable energy on the list, and adds that the region is still in discovery mode.
In the creation of the Climate Smart map, it looks at defining the region by how “much renewable energy, inclusive of green jobs, protected land and ocean space is needed in making it a climate smart zone”. She adds this goes beyond the type of financing that has been used to bring it to this status, and while there are numerous funding mechanisms available, some of them simply require philanthropic funding.
She says for the region to reach there, “it should be able to exhaust the funding that is conditional, such as loan facilities, equity type financing, so that everything that can’t be funded by anything other than grant funding, can be left and try and match the monies given with the available grant funding”. Looking at the way climate action is being funded, Moses says “over 88 percent of it is mitigated funding or funding for renewable energy transition”. And while Moses notes that at this point “these projects are relatively easy to fund, it looks at things such as rehabilitation of mangroves, coral reef replanting, and other areas that help protect islands as well as adapt to climate change, which are often far more difficult to fund, and forces creative ways of finding funding”. It is this reason she says the map is important, as it “helps the region identify areas where things are going well, understand what can be learnt from each other, and then look at how such knowledge is shared regionally keeping track of the resources, and the gatekeepers who are supporting the transition across the Caribbean, such as the consultants, all while building the region’s own capacity”.
While financing might always be there, building the region’s capacity to attract the funds is another. But what is the price tag for achieving all this, Moses says its comes easily at a $150B if the projects could be ready.
The UNFCCC Global Ambassador says bringing the region to climate smart ready is achievable, but believes it can be done if the Caribbean got an audience with the world at its actual doorstep. It is with this in mind, Moses says the region is already on the road to looking into hosting the UN’s Climate Change event, but perhaps in the next ten years.