Leroy Fearon | Our storms, their emissions

Across the Caribbean and parts of South America, the sound of approaching storms has become all too familiar. For many young people in these regions, climate change is no longer an abstract discussion reserved for scientists and global conferences. It is the reality of flooded communities, interrupted schooling, damaged homes, and uncertain economic futures.

From Jamaica to Dominica, from Guyana to Brazil, the signs of a warming planet are becoming impossible to ignore. The Caribbean alone is home to approximately 44 million people, with more than 70 per cent living along coastlines. These coastal communities – once the lifeblood of fishing, tourism, and cultural heritage – are now among the most vulnerable spaces in the world as sea levels rise steadily and storms intensify.

In recent years the region has endured some of the most powerful storms in recorded history. Hurricanes such as Maria in 2017 and Dorian in 2019 left widespread devastation, destroying infrastructure and displacing thousands. More recently, storms such as Hurricane Beryl and Hurricane Melissa have reinforced a painful truth: climate disasters are becoming stronger, more frequent, and more costly for small island states.

Yet behind these storms lies a troubling global reality. The Caribbean and most countries in South America contribute only a tiny fraction of global greenhouse gas emissions. Meanwhile, the world’s largest emitters – including China, the United States, the European Union, and India – account for a significant share of the emissions driving global warming (Ritchie, Rosado, & Roser, 2023; Global Carbon Project, 2023). This imbalance has placed regions that contributed little to the climate crisis among those suffering its harshest consequences.

For young people growing up in these regions, the stakes could not be higher. Climate change threatens education as storms damage schools and disrupt learning. It threatens employment as agriculture and tourism, two of the region’s most important economic sectors, become increasingly vulnerable to extreme weather and environmental degradation. It threatens public health through rising heat, water shortages, and the spread of climate-sensitive diseases.

And it threatens the very landscapes that define Caribbean and South American identity, from coral reefs and beaches to rainforests and rivers. This is why the global climate conversation must move beyond acknowledgement and toward responsibility.

GLOBAL SOLUTIONS

If climate change is truly a global challenge, then its solutions must also be global. Nations with the greatest historical and industrial contributions to greenhouse gas emissions must take meaningful steps to support regions that are now on the frontlines of climate impacts.

This support should not be viewed as charity; it should be recognized as climate responsibility. Investments in climate resilience across the Caribbean and South America are urgently needed. These include strengthening early warning systems, building climate-resilient infrastructure, protecting coastal ecosystems such as mangroves and coral reefs, and supporting sustainable agriculture that can withstand changing weather patterns.

Equally important is investment in education and youth leadership. Young people across the Caribbean and South America are already stepping forward as environmental advocates, community organisers, and innovators. Many are leading reforestation projects, restoring mangrove ecosystems, organising beach cleanups, and raising awareness about sustainable living.

With the right resources, training, and global partnerships, this generation could become one of the most powerful forces in the global climate movement. But they cannot do it alone. Global emitters must recognise that supporting climate resilience in vulnerable regions is not only a moral obligation, it is also an investment in global stability.

Climate disasters do not respect borders. When communities collapse under environmental pressure, the ripple effects are felt across economies, migration patterns, and international systems.

Helping the Caribbean and South America build resilience today helps prevent deeper global crises tomorrow. The youth of these regions are not asking the world to solve their problems for them. They are asking for partnership, fairness, and shared responsibility in confronting one of humanity’s greatest challenges. The Caribbean and South America did not create the climate crisis. Yet their young people are increasingly being asked to inherit its consequences.

The question now facing the world is simple: will the nations that contributed most to global emissions stand with these regions in building a more resilient future? Because when the next storm comes, and it will, the strength of our global response will determine whether vulnerable communities merely survive, or finally begin to thrive.

- Leroy Fearon Jr, J.P, M.Sc., is a lecturer, multi-disciplinary researcher, author, geography specialist, columnist, Governor General's Achievement Awardee '24 and Governor General I Believe Initiative (IBI) Ambassador '24. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and leroyfearon85@gmail.com