‘We have nowhere to run’: PM of Dominica stresses Caribbean’s vulnerability to climate change

BY: DELLIA RISMAY 

Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit was the keynote speaker for a discussion held at the University of Toronto called ‘Dominica, the Caribbean and Climate Resiliency in an Age of Change’. The discussion took place on October 12^th, just a few days after a new report from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned that the planet only has about twelve years to stave off catastrophic levels of global warming. Heat waves, rising sea levels, droughts, and intense storms are already occurring all over the world, and the Caribbean is no exception. Last year, in the span of just two weeks, Hurricanes Maria and Irma slammed several countries in the Caribbean. Puerto Rico suffered widespread damage which was compounded by a delayed and problematic response from the United States, which the island is an unincorporated territory of. This past August, nearly a year after the fact, officials said the storm claimed nearly three thousand lives.

Dominica was hit hard by Hurricanes Irma and Maria. Prime Minister Skerrit said that Hurricane Irma, the first of the two powerful storms to reach the island, had wind speeds that were beyond what is classified as a Category 5 hurricane, meaning the strength of the storm was literally off the charts. After Irma hit, in the middle of the night on September 18^th, 2017, Hurricane Maria arrived as a Category 5 storm and hammered torrential rain and 260km/h winds upon the island, tearing roofs off of homes, flattening buildings, and decimating communications systems. Prime Minister Skerrit had to be rescued when the storm ripped the roof off his home and began to flood. The storm took 65 lives in Dominica.

Recalling Dominica’s brush with two seriously damaging storms, Prime Minister Skerrit stressed that even though the Caribbean may not be one of the world’s largest polluters, the region is extremely vulnerable to global warming and destructive weather. “That which we contribute […] can hardly move the needle,” Prime Minister Skerrit said to the crowd. “But yet still, we in Dominica and the Caribbean are on the frontline of the effects of climate change.”

To help prevent the people of Dominica from being so forcefully impacted by hurricanes and other natural disasters, Prime Minister Skerrit says he is working on turning the island into the world’s first climate resilient nation. “There is no way we should continue the practice of just fixing things up,” he said. He described a plan where the country would use stronger materials when constructing homes, commercial buildings and bridges so that in the event of a hurricane, the structures would not suffer substantial damage. He is also looking into utilizing more renewable energy, moving electrical and telephone lines underground, as well as encouraging farmers to choose to plant types of crops that are more resilient to strong weather systems.

Prime Minister Skerrit explained that the international community can help Dominica and other Caribbean countries build more durable infrastructure in their territories by providing monetary assistance. “The challenge we have as small countries with limited fiscal space, or no fiscal space, because many of our nations are running on a negative budget, these things cost more money,” he said. “This is where we believe the international community can assist us with the financing that’s required to build a resilient nation.”

Echoing the sense of urgency that was in the IPCC report, Prime Minister Skerrit expressed disappointment at the seemingly slow pace of things when it comes to international action against climate change. “We have been having, as a global community, the discussion of climate change for decades now. Decades. Every time we get to a conference, we kick the can down the road. We come and we give wonderful speeches, world leaders, and nothing happens,” he said.

Skerrit says that now is the time to mobilize and be proactive in the battle to protect vulnerable territories against the catastrophic effects of climate change. “For us in the Caribbean and Dominica included, we have nowhere to run,” Prime Minister Skerrit said. “For us, the time for talk has elapsed.”