The Caribbean Climate Justice Alliance launches its Justice and Resilience Agenda, outlining priorities

The Caribbean Climate Justice Alliance is a growing and powerful group. It is quite a diverse group too, including civil society and non-governmental organisations, local activists, creatives, the media, and others across the region, all working outside government.

Now, after many months of work, establishing working groups, online discussions, webinars and sheer brainstorming, the Caribbean Climate Justice and Resilience Agenda has been launched, under the expert and guiding hand of Dr. Ainka Grandson and her team at the Caribbean Natural Resources Institute (CANARI) in Port of Spain, Trinidad. The agenda outlines the Alliance’s priorities, as COP28 continues its deliberations. See a short video on the Agenda launch, here.

If you are at COP28, please note that the formal launch of the Agenda will take place on Friday, December 8 at 10am GMT+4 at the CARICOM Pavilion (Blue zone) in Expo City, Dubai. Speakers will include: Ms. Vishani Ragobeer, Media Fellow, Climate Tracker; Mr. Luciano Doest, CELOS and Caribbean Climate Justice Leader Academy, Island Innovation; Dr. Jan Yves Remy, Shridath Ramphal Centre for Trade, University of the West Indies; Ms. Christine Samwaroo, The Breadfruit Collective; Mr. Carlon Mendoza, Climate Analytics Caribbean; and of course Ainka Granderson, CANARI. Please share this information, go along and support (and report!)

You might ask: What exactly is “climate justice”? Well, discussions on climate justice in the Caribbean go back to at least 2015 or so; and here was the Alliance’s Statement ahead of COP27, last year.

I do like this definition from Yale Climate Connections:

“Climate justice” is a term, and more than that a movement, that acknowledges climate change can have differing social, economic, public health, and other adverse impacts on underprivileged populations. Advocates for climate justice are striving to have these inequities addressed head-on through long-term mitigation and adaptation strategies.
Yale Climate Connections, July 2020

Makes sense, doesn’t it? The fact is, climate change is already affecting everyone differently and highlighting inequities across the region that must be addressed. I am honoured to be a member of the Alliance. If you would like to join, click on the link below (the final paragraph) or contact CANARI directly. We are active and not just a “talk shop.” The goal is to spur action projects, besides making sure that the voices of those on the frontlines of the climate crisis are heard.

Here’s more from CANARI. Take a read of the Agenda, today.

Huge, huge appreciation goes out to the Open Society Foundations and Green Climate Fund for their support, as well as CANARI for bringing us all together!

Caribbean Climate Justice Alliance lays out priorities for COP28 and beyond to ensure climate justice and resilience in Caribbean small island developing states

Port of Spain, November 23, 2023 – The Caribbean Climate Justice Alliance, including over 40 civil society organisations, grassroots leaders and activists, academics, creatives, the media and other non-state actors, is calling for urgent and accelerated implementation to tackle the climate crisis and address the needs of Caribbean small island developing states (SIDS) and other vulnerable countries ahead of COP28 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

The Alliance launched its “Caribbean Climate Justice and Resilience Agenda”, which outlines priority needs and actions by 2030 for vulnerable groups and wider civil society in Caribbean SIDS. These priorities include:

Scaling up locally-led solutions for adaptation and loss and damage
Improving access to and delivery of climate finance for frontline communities, small and micro enterprises and civil society organisations as part of a ‘whole of society’ approach
Scaling up just, nature-based solutions for resilience
Supporting a just transition for pro-poor, inclusive, sustainable and resilient development
Promoting gender equitable and social inclusive approaches to climate action
Promoting youth and intergenerational equity as core to the climate response
Integrating a rights-based and earth-centred approach in addressing all these priorities and ensuring climate justice

The focus of the Agenda recognises that climate change poses a severe threat to the Caribbean population, economic sectors and livelihoods, and natural ecosystems, and its impacts are often hardest for the most vulnerable and marginalised groups. These include small-scale farmers and fisherfolk, rural women producers, elderly and disabled persons, the income poor, Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities, migrants and LGBTQIA+ persons. Further, if greenhouse gas emissions continue unabated and global temperature exceeds 1.5˚ C, the impacts of rising sea levels, more intense hurricanes, rainfall variability, ocean acidification and other changes threaten the very existence of our way of life in the Caribbean and other SIDS that have contributed the least to global emissions.

The Agenda seeks to amplify the voices of the most vulnerable groups on the frontlines of the climate crisis and catalyse actions for climate justice and local resilience in Caribbean SIDS. It was developed collaboratively by the Caribbean Climate Justice Alliance, through deliberative dialogues with vulnerable groups and wider civil society across the region. The process for development was led by the Caribbean Natural Resources Institute (CANARI), which currently serves as convenor and secretariat for the Alliance, with funding from the Open Society Foundations (OSF) and Green Climate Fund (GCF).

CANARI and several other members of the Caribbean Climate Justice Alliance will be participating in COP28 from November 30-December 12 in Dubai, and the allies look forward to collaborating with public and private sector agencies and other non-state actors to champion climate justice and ensure key global decisions reflect the needs and priorities of Caribbean SIDS.

Download the Caribbean Climate Justice and Resilience Agenda at: https://bit.ly/3Rc6zR2

About CANARI: The Caribbean Natural Resources Institute (CANARI) is a regional technical non-profit institute which has been working across the Caribbean islands for more than 30 years. Our mission is to promote and facilitate stakeholder participation in the stewardship of natural resources in the Caribbean. Our work focuses on Biodiversity and Ecosystems, Equity and Justice, Participatory Governance and Resilience. For more information, see: https://canari.org/

About the Caribbean Climate Justice Alliance: The Caribbean Climate Justice Alliance brings together civil society organisations, grassroots leaders and activists, academics, creatives, the media and other non-state actors to amplify the voices of those on the frontlines of the climate crisis, especially the most vulnerable communities and groups, and catalyse actions for climate justice and local resilience in Caribbean SIDS. It was launched in March 2022 and currently engages over 40 allies. For more information, see: https://canari.org/caribbean-climate-justice-alliance/

For further information, please contact: Dr. Ainka Granderson, Senior Technical Officer, CANARI at ainka@canari.org