Caribbean to improve climate resilience with US$10 million programme

Washington, USA — The Caribbean region will increase its resilience to climate change by enhancing the adaptive capacity across the region through a US$10.39 million grant approved by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) through support from the pilot programme for climate resilience (PPCR) of the Climate Investment Funds (CIF).

The project is to be executed by the Mona Office of Research and Innovation (MORI), University of the West Indies (UWI) in Jamaica and will be co-implemented by regional organizations working on climate change in the region, including the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC); Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology (CIMH), Climate Change Studies Group of UWI, Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA), Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI), and the Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM).

The project is the implementation of the investment plan for the Caribbean regional track of the PPCR, and it will help the Caribbean region improve regional processes of climate relevant data acquisition, storage, analysis, access, transfer and dissemination, and pilot and scale up innovative climate resilient initiatives directly in PPCR countries – Jamaica, Haiti, Dominica, Grenada, St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines.

However, it is expected that the region as a whole will benefit from the improved capacity and increased information and services related to climate change.

The project will focus on: (i) Improving geospatial data and management for adaptation planning, sea level rise and storm surge impact analyses – the use of radar in bathymetric and coastal topographic analysis will be a key activity; (ii) Consolidating and expanding the regional climate network and global platform linkages – improvements in the acquisition of weather data and climate services will be key activities; (iii) Downscaling and expanded climate projection models and high resolution maps – improvements to and enhancement of the downscaled future climate projections in the Caribbean in support of adaptation planning, decision making, and sector level modeling/projection efforts will be key activities ; and (iv) the application of adaptation initiatives utilizing the information generated as part of the project in the areas of health, agriculture, marine resources, water and climate change policies.

There will be a strong emphasis on disseminating the lessons learned and information generated from the implementation of the project activities as well as the information related to the benefits of the PPCR approach in building climate resilience to countries in the Caribbean.

Thanks to this programme, the Caribbean will build on its historical regional approach to addressing the impacts of climate change and strengthen adaptation efforts across the region, providing an example for other regions globally.

The US$10 million grant is a five year program and will be supervised by the Climate Change and Sustainability Division within the Infrastructure and Environment Sector Department of the IDB.