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Friday, April 19, 2024
News and Views from the Global South
What Does “Climate-Smart Agriculture” Really Mean? New Tool Breaks It Down
A Trinidadian scientist has developed a mechanism for determining the degree of climate-smart agriculture (CSA) compliance with respect to projects, processes and products.
New Tool Separates Wheat from Chaff for Climate-Smart Ag Finance
Climate-smart agriculture seeks to achieve food security and broader development goals under a changing climate and increasing food demand. 
Conservation Agriculture Sprouts in Cuban Fields
At the entrance, the Tierra Brava farm looks like any other family farm in the rural municipality of Los Palacios, in the westernmost province of Cuba. But as you drive in, you see that the traditional furrows are not there, and that freshly cut grass covers the soil.
Climate Scientists Use Forecasting Tools to Protect Caribbean Ways of Life
Since 2013, Jamaica’s Met Office has been using its Climate Predictability Tool (CPT) to forecast ‘below average’ rainfall or drought across the island. The tool has allowed this northern Caribbean island to accurately predict several dry periods and droughts, including its most destructive episode in 2014 when an estimated one billion dollars in agricultural losses were incurred due to crop failures and wild fires caused by the exceptionally dry conditions.
Guyana’s Model Green Town Reflects Ambitious National Plan
At the head of Guyana’s Essequibo River, 50 miles inland from the Atlantic Ocean, you will find the town of Bartica. Considered the gateway to Guyana’s interior, the town has a population of about 15,000 and is the launching point for people who work in the forests mining gold and diamonds.
Climate Change Brings Migration from the Dry Corridor to Nicaragua’s Caribbean Coast
If the impact of drought and poverty in the municipalities of the so-called Dry Corridor in Nicaragua continues pushing the agricultural frontier towards the Caribbean coast, by the year 2050 this area will have lost all its forests and nature reserves, experts predict.
Central America Fights Climate Change with Minimal Foreign Aid
Despite the fact that Central America is one of the regions most vulnerable to climate change, it has half-empty coffers when it comes to funding efforts against the phenomenon, in part because it receives mere crumbs in foreign aid to face the impacts of the rise in temperatures.
A Green Energy Shift in Barbados, One Streetlight at a Time
The ever-escalating and volatile price of oil, and the high cost of importation, have left Barbados and other island nations in the unenviable position of having the highest electricity prices in the world. 
Barbados Steps Up Plans for Renewables, Energy Efficiency
With wind, solar and other renewable energy sources steadily increasing their share in energy consumption across the Caribbean, Barbados is taking steps to further reduce the need for CO2-emitting fossil fuel energy.
Tobago Gears Up to Fight Sargassum Invasion
As Tobago's tourism industry struggles to repel the sargassum invasions that have smothered its beaches with massive layers of seaweed as far as the eye can see - in some places half a metre thick - and left residents retching from the stench, the island's government is working to establish an early warning system that will alert islanders to imminent invasions so they can take defensive action.
Costa Rica’s Caribbean Coast Pools Efforts Against Climate Change
Jonathan Barrantes walks between the rows of shoots, naming one by one each species in the tree nursery that he manages, in the south of Costa Rica’s Caribbean coastal region. There are fruit trees, ceibas that will take decades to grow to full size. and timber species for forestry plantations.
Farming Beyond Drought
The Caribbean accounts for seven of the world’s top 36 water-stressed countries and Barbados is in the top ten. The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) defines countries like Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda, and St. Kitts and Nevis as water-scarce with less than 1000 m3 freshwater resources per capita.
Extreme Weather Wiping Out Hard-Won GDP Gains in Hours
With Antigua and Barbuda joining St. Kitts and Nevis as the two eastern Caribbean nations to attain middle-income country status, a senior diplomat has identified climate change as a major factor preventing other nations in the grouping from taking the same step forward.
Communities Step Up to Help Save Jamaica’s Forests
According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), 31.1 percent or about 337,000 hectares of Jamaica is forested. Of this, 26.1 percent or 88,000 is classified as primary forest, the most biodiverse and carbon-dense form of forest.
Funding Climate Resilience Benefits All Nations – Yes, the U.S. Too
A leading climate change mitigation and adaptation activist and former climate negotiator in the Caribbean says that the United States could protect its economic and political interest by helping the region to go green.
The Greater Caribbean Raises Funds to Protect its Sandy Coasts
Almost no Caribbean beach escapes erosion, a problem that scientific sources describe as extensive and irreversible in these ecosystems of high economic interest, that work as protective barriers for life inland.
Caribbean Seeks to Climate-Proof Tourism Industry
The tourism industry is the key economic driver and largest provider of jobs in the Caribbean after the public sector. Caribbean tourism broke new ground in 2016, surpassing 29 million arrivals for the first time and once again growing faster than the global average.
Europe Stands by Caribbean on Climate Funding
A senior European Union (EU) official in the Caribbean said Europe is ready to continue the global leadership on the fight against climate change, including helping the poor and vulnerable countries in the region.
Unique Sandbar Coastal Ecosystem in Cuba Calls for Climate Solutions
A battered bridge connects the centre of Baracoa, Cuba´s oldest city, with a singular dark-sand sandbar, known as Tibaracón, that forms on one of the banks of the Macaguaní River where it flows into the Caribbean Sea in northeastern Cuba.
Climate Change Has Changed the Geography of Honduras’ Caribbean Coast
In Balfate, a rural municipality that includes fishing villages and small farms along Honduras’ Caribbean coast, the effects of climate change are already felt on its famous scenery and beaches. The sea is relentlessly approaching the houses, while the ecosystem is deteriorating.
Caribbean Rolls Out Plans to Reduce Climate Change Hazards
Climate change remains inextricably linked to the challenges of disaster risk reduction (DRR). And according to the head of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR), Robert Glasser, the reduction of greenhouse gases is “the single most urgent global disaster risk treatment”.« Previous Page — Next Page »
As the world moves to implement the Paris Climate Change Agreement, the Caribbean—one of the most vulnerable regions to rising sea levels—faces a host of challenges, including accessing funding for adaptation and mitigation, protecting key sectors like tourism and agriculture, building resilience to natural disasters, and moving to a low-carbon development path. Much of the world’s most interesting work in addressing climate change, adopting clean energy and coming up with plans to stem deforestation has its roots in the developing world, where climate change impacts are often felt first and strongest. IPS looks at the wide variety of local, national and regional initiatives in the Caribbean that offer creative solutions to these problems.
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Caribbean Climate Wire
