Mottley warns Caribbean countries to be prepared for climatic event

BRIDGETOWN (CMC):

Prime Minister Mia Mottley has called on Caribbean countries to be prepared for possibility of a climate change event that could cause mass migration and displacement in the Caribbean.

“2017 was that year that showed us the possibility of what could happen with the impact on Dominica and Antigua and Barbuda in particular with those successive hurricanes that hit us.

“The coastal and inland flooding due to intensified storm surges have also continued to be a problem for too many of our other countries. Trinidad, Guyana and Suriname may not be hit by hurricanes but they are hit by floods,” Mottley told the handover ceremony of the Regional and National Maritime Security Strategies.

The Barbados-based Regional Security System (RSS) said the draft National and Regional Maritime Security Strategies will provide the foundation for strengthening the security of the maritime commons in several of its member countries.

The RSS said that it had been working to ensure that the maritime space within its member states is secure and that in 2019, in collaboration with the Caribbean Development Bank and the Organization of American States, it embarked on a mission to create strategies that, once implemented, would safeguard the borders and seaports within the region.

This initiative will come to completion in October this year, when the RSS will hand over the draft National and Regional Maritime Security Strategies, which will provide the foundation for strengthening the security of the maritime commons among Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada, St Lucia, St Kitts and Nevis and St Vincent and the Grenadines.

Mottley told the hybrid ceremony that the Belize-based Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre and the United nations Development Programme that a one-metre rise in sea level can displace approximately 110,000 people in Caribbean Community member states. “For the RSS in particular, it was estimated that two per cent of the population in St Kitts and Nevis and indeed three per cent of the population in Antigua and Barbuda could be displaced as a result of these types of events.

MASS MIGRATION

“This potential displacement leads us to enquire if the current response in our member states can accommodate management of mass migration or displacement of such a large number of persons,” Mottley said.

She said that together with the chief of staff of the Barbados Defence Force, Errington Shurland, discussions have been “with some of our international partners with respect to this reality of our capacity to be able to handle mass migration as a result of climatic events.

“It is our judgement that there is much work to be done if we are able to do this seamlessly and time is not on our side,” Mottley said, adding it was imperative humanitarian and security missions were identified as key initiatives going forward.

The RSS said that while the strategy will aid in tackling transnational organised crime within the subregional bloc, “it will also support the development of the Blue Economy with the aim to boost economic growth and employment through industries such as shipping, fisheries, renewable energies, maritime transportation, tourism and maritime biotechnology.

“Member states will also have a better awareness of the activities which are occurring within their waters, in an effort to efficiently mobilise and deploy resources to adequately respond to any hazards or illicit events.”