Some 17 percent of the Caribbean’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is lost annually to hurricanes.
The statistic was highlighted by Dr José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, Executive Director of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), during the 8th meeting of UN ECLAC's Caribbean Development Roundtable on Monday (September 9, 2024). Trinidad and Tobago hosted this year's Roundtable.
The ECLAC Executive Secretary noted these climate impacts are significant contributors to public debt in the region.
“In the Caribbean, the growth challenge is exacerbated by unique vulnerabilities,” he observed. “In this region, the climate crisis and natural disasters pose an existential threat. The passage of Hurricane Beryl in June speaks clearly to your countries’ high exposure to destructive climatic events and the Hurricane Season.”
“We [ECLAC] estimate regular annual losses from disasters in the Caribbean at $3 billion, but in an active year, this figure rises very quickly,” he said, noting that natural disasters, such as hurricanes, also can put a country's economy on a hold for roughly a decade.
The ECLAC boss pointed to other issues impacting Caribbean growth and resilience, which he described as “a trap of high inequality, low social mobility and weak social cohesion”.
“Too large a percentage of the sub-region’s population exist on the fringes of the economy, barely making a living in informal low-paying jobs,” Dr Salazar-Xirinachs noted. “Welfare systems have insufficient coverage and lack of sufficient financing.”
“Poverty levels are high. Education and vocational training systems have ample room for improvement. Gender-based violence, gender inequality and youth unemployment continue to be matters of serious concern,” he said. “Citizens with disabilities remain largely on the margins of society with inadequate access to systems or services configured to their needs.”
“And organised crime has grown and penetrated both the formal and the informal economies,” he added.
Meanwhile… as he referenced the recent ‘CARICOM Regional Symposium on Violence as a Public Health Issue’, the Prime Minister of Saint Kitts and Nevis, Dr Terrance Drew, observed that while combating climate change is high on the agenda, it is not the region's only threat.
“The threats we face today are not only from natural disasters, but also from illegal migration, and the importation of weapons and ammunition—none of which is produced (or very little) here in our region,” PM Drew said.
He said his government was doing all it can to ensure the safety and security of citizens by enhancing the capability of law enforcement and improving border security.
“However, we cannot build a resilient nation if our people are living in fear,” he asserted.
The St Kitts & Nevis PM stated that security is the bedrock upon which all other forms of resilience are built.
