By: Staff Writer
July 4, 2023
Climate change events impacts the right to education by displacing people, putting further stress on vulnerable populations and is rising rapidly, a report from The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) says.
The report, “Central America and the Caribbean regional synthesis: climate change, displacement and the right to education,” analyses five countries, The Bahamas, Cuba, Guatemala, Dominican Republic and Jamaica and the impact of climate change on the displacement of people and how that has affected the relocation of people from disaster struck and prone areas.
The report said: “Hurricanes are recurrent weather events in Central America and the Caribbean. However, climate change has increased the severity of these events, primarily because of the effects of ocean warming (Pan American Health Organization, 2019). In 2019, Hurricane Dorian was the most intense on record striking the Bahamas. The 2020 Atlantic Hurricane season faced 31 hurricanes and tropical storms, representing the highest number of storms ever recorded in the region. The two major hurricanes were Eta and Iota, aggravated by La Niña. These hurricanes caused significant impacts in Guatemala, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic.”
It continued, “Climate change is affecting water availability in Central America and the Caribbean, given the frequency and severity of droughts, which are linked to increased temperatures and decreased precipitations. In Guatemala, the exacerbation of the El Niño Southern Oscillation caused by climate change results in an unprecedented drought during the dry season and unusually extreme rainfall during the wet season. Due to this phenomenon, the 2015- 2016 drought was the worst Guatemala experienced in more than 35 years, and future predictions show an even bleaker picture. The worsening of El Niño has also increased the risk of drought in the more arid regions of the Dominican Republic, a country that in 2019 faced the worst drought in over 30 years. The Bahamas, just like other Caribbean SIDS, is already dealing with more frequent episodes of droughts, which is especially concerning in a country where freshwater resources are already limited and vulnerable.”
Sea level in Central America and the Caribbean is currently rising by 2 to 4 cm per decade and it is expected to rise at an even faster pace within the following years, resulting from warmer ocean temperatures. Since Caribbean countries have large coastal plains, they are highly exposed to flooding as we are seeing in Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana, coastal erosion, and freshwater salinisation. The Bahamas is one of the top four most-at-risk countries in the world: 32 percent of its land, corresponding to 25 percent of the population, is below 0.5 m. In Jamaica, the sea level has increased by 1.66 mm/year over 17.8 years, threatening 95% of its beaches.
These events are displacing people at a rapid pace as the report duly notes, “Internal climate displacement in the Bahamas has been mostly caused by extreme weather events, such as Hurricane Dorian in 2019, which displaced at least 9,840 people, mostly temporary. In cases of internal climate displacement, the majority of the population concentrates on the capital island. In the case of slow-onset events, although displacement has been less discernible, it is expected that sea-level rise will lead to the displacement of tens of thousands of people. Moreover, like other Caribbean SIDS, the Bahamas is already dealing with more frequent episodes of drought, which are expected to worsen with climate change, increasing internal displacement.
“Cuba has been heavily affected by internal displacement caused by extreme weather events. Most of these displacements, however, are temporary, with people staying in shelters provided by the government and then returning to their places of residency. Hurricane Gustav in 2008 displaced 2.5m people. More recently, Irma (2017) displaced 1.7m people in Cuba. Regarding slow-onset events, sea-level rise is one of the main threats to internal climate displacement, which is expected to displace up to 41.300 people by 2050. The drought is another slow-onset event increasingly affecting Cuba, which could create internal displacement in the future.
“Internal displacement in the Dominican Republic has been mainly caused by rapid onset events like hurricanes and floods. In 2007, hurricanes Maria and Irma were particularly important, which displaced more than 67,000 people in the country. Sea level rise has been another critical cause of internal displacement. Around 100,000 people live less than 0.5 meters above sea level and are at risk of displacement. The severe drought affecting the country, especially in Northwest regions, is another important cause of internal displacement. This has increased rural-urban migration, as well as the concentration of the population in the central region and the decrease of the rural population
“Internal displacement in Guatemala has been usually caused by rapid onset events, such as hurricanes and floods, where many displaced groups have had to stay in emergency shelters for weeks and months. For example, after hurricanes Eta and Iota (2020), more than 250.000 people were living in shelters, of which only 4.2% were official. The main slow onset weather even creating displacement in Guatemala is the severe drought affecting several rural regions, which could be one of the reasons for the increase in rural-urban migration within the country.
“Internal climate displacement in Jamaica has mainly responded to extreme weather events and has been characterized by short-term evacuations. There has also been climate displacement as a result of slow-onset events, such as sea-level rising and recurring droughts. This kind of displacement, however, is at most times more challenging to recognize and not always possible to distinguish from economic migration. It can also be related to rural-to-urban migration, which has increased in Jamaica in recent years and urban density simultaneously.”
As a result of these pressures, planned relocation has become a significant response to those climate events, creating adaptation challenges for these countries. Permanent relocation will remain a challenge for these governments due to the availability of land and resources to permanently relocate displaced people to.