Earth Today | New disaster risk-reduction programme coming for the Caribbean
Published:Thursday | June 12, 2025 | 12:06 AM
JAMAICA is to benefit from a soon-to-be launched disaster risk-reduction programme for the Caribbean that includes the offer of country grants up to US$500,000 in support of capacity building for scaled up “policy, institutional and financing mechanisms for resilience recovery”.
The revelation was made Tuesday by Dr Kishan Khoday, who heads the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in The Bahamas, Belize, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Jamaica, and Turks and Caicos Islands.
The UNDP resident representative was speaking at the UNDP’s Hurricane-Ready and Resilient Forum on Loss and Damage for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), hosted in Kingston and streamed online.
According to Khoday, the programme would reflect the collaborative efforts of not only the UNDP but also the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, the United Nations Children’s Fund and the World Food Programme, together “with the invaluable support of the European Union”.
“Options for embracing loss and damage finance can be a key outcome,” he noted.
The announcement comes against the background of the identified special vulnerability of Caribbean small island developing states to the loss and damage associated with climate change impacts – from sea level rise and coastal erosion to extreme weather events, including hurricanes and droughts.
These impacts are fuelled by the human consumption of fossil fuels, such as coal, oil and gas that generate greenhouse gas emissions that are causing the accelerated warming of the planet and triggering the associated risks.
“Estimates show that from 1980-2020, loss and damage as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) were the highest in the Caribbean SIDS, at an average of 2.5 per cent compared to two per cent for the Pacific SIDS, 0.2 per cent for the rest of Latin America, and 0.1 per cent for Africa,” Khoday said.
“Looking ahead, climate damages alone are forecast to increase in the Caribbean from five per cent of GDP in 2025, to 20 per cent by 2100 representing $22 billion of annual losses. This has implications for key sectors in SIDS economies, such as tourism and agriculture, the former of which could see GDP reduced by 38-47 per cent by 2100,” he added.
Of particular concern, Khoday noted, are the impacts to emerge for high-risk communities, and micro small and medium enterprises “which are at the base of key sectors and community livelihoods”.