The Ministers of Environment and Sustainable Development of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) welcome the First Global Stocktake, as a vital opportunity for a universal push this decade to keep global warming below 1.5°C. There is mounting irrefutable evidence that the world is in uncharted territory and that there is but a narrowing window of opportunity to secure a livable planet for all.
The entry into force of the Paris Agreement inspired a new generation of emissions reduction targets that saw projections for global warming reduced by whole degrees. As promising as those projections were, they only brought us within range of keeping global warming as close to 2.7°C, not 1.5°C. Even more concerning is that action is lagging. Already the world has experienced global warming of 1.1°C and recent science suggests that we are nearing the 1.5°C warming threshold. It is now a matter of years not decades!!
The impacts have been devastating on a global scale. However, those impacts have been discriminating especially against our small island and low lying coastal developing states. Our experience of economic and non-economic loss and damage related to climate impacts has struck at the core of our economies and our societies. At one extreme, lives and livelihoods have been lost. Our peoples’ health is at risk. Homes, and other critical infrastructure have been damaged or destroyed. Whole sectors of the economy have been shut down whether in times of hurricane or drought or because of slow onset events and for some, the threat of slowing down of other sectors is imminent due to energy transitions that will become inevitable. At the other extreme, our environment is under siege. The biodiversity and ecosystems that have sustained generations of Caribbean people are under constant threat…
CARICOM Press Release
Read the full press release here.