by Minister Simon Stiell (Grenada) & Minister Matthew Samuda (Jamaica)
A global group of scientists and experts known as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have for several years provided scientific guidance to international governments in an effort to advance action on global warming.
Last week, the IPCC’s latest scientific report on the climate crisis was released. It was uncharacteristically blunt in its conclusions:
“Any further delay in concerted anticipatory global action on adaptation and mitigation will miss a brief and rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all.”
Reports issued by the IPCC are meant to assist all governments in creating workable solutions to mitigate the impacts of the climate crisis by providing expert advice. In recognition of the rallying cry by global small islands to cap global temperature rise by 1.5°C, the IPCC also provides customised recommendations for nations like ours. This latest IPCC report comes as a stark reminder that the world has already warmed 1.1°C, just a few degrees shy of the 1.5°C temperature goal. With its most pressing recommendations no longer tailored toward vulnerable geopolitical regions like our own, it made strikingly clear that the entire globe was at risk.
The wording throughout the text of this latest report was the strongest yet. It emphasised the need for all nations to rapidly advance concerted and science-based action to mitigate the devastation of climate change and find opportunities to rapidly transition away from unsustainable economic models. This is the reason why our governments, Grenada, and Jamaica and a growing coalition of Caribbean nations are part of the 85+ member strong collective championing a global deal for nature and people with the central goal of protecting 30% of the world’s land and sea by 2030.
This 30×30 goal launched by the High Ambition Coalition (HAC) for Nature and People, is co-chaired by the governments of Costa Rica, France, and the United Kingdom — our allies in advancing the globe toward a more sustainable future. The HAC’s promotion of the 30×30 target is a proactive country-driven response to the climate and biodiversity emergencies that face our planet, particularly small vulnerable economies such as those of the Caribbean.
But what exactly does protecting 30% of the planet’s environment look like? The 30×30 goal is an international target that aggregates the protected areas of every participating nation and was designed to complement each nation’s abilities. For example, large ocean states like ours are in a better position to protect large portions of our marine resources, while an almost entirely landlocked country can commit to a much larger land protection goal. Steeped in science, this 30×30 target will safeguard almost a third of our planet’s oceans and lands including the biodiversity and critical ecosystem services they provide. More pressingly, it will provide a third of the climate mitigation needed by 2030 to ensure our planetary survival.
Our Caribbean nations are only as strong as the environment they rely on, and the 30×30 goal allows our nations to inject much-needed resilience into our natural ecosystems to ensure that our people, culture and economies have a fighting chance in responding to climate change. Effectively managing our natural assets also ensures that our nations collectively build and learn together to advance beyond our current vulnerabilities and lay the foundation urgently needed to support achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
As Barbados’s Prime Minister Mia Mottley, the only Caribbean leader featured at the opening ceremony at last year’s global climate conference shared during her address, the onus is on today’s governments to advocate and champion the preservation of their nations:
“Leaders today, not leaders in 2030 or 2050, must make this choice. It is in our hands. Our people and our planet need it.”
It should come as no surprise then that our governments and our region are especially committed to implementing sustainable solutions. 30×30 is therefore an essential guide to our sustainable advancement.
In late February, we represented our governments amongst global delegates in Nairobi, Kenya, as part of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA). At this meeting we discussed pivotal next steps to protecting the planet’s biodiversity and agreed to a resolution tailored to actioning the integration of decisive conservation measures into our domestic policy. The meeting also revealed that vulnerable nations like ours will need a total of $60 billion in finance from major economies to protect our natural resources. This was a landmark moment for the conservation sector as it made more evident than before just how impracticable it is for vulnerable nations to play a contributing role in 30×30 and catalyse our sustainable development without the assistance of the international community.
With over 85 countries taking part in the 30×30 target, a much clearer picture emerges of how this rallying call can be successful. Certain key biodiversity-rich regions like ours are being relied on to protect a percentage of both land and water given our cultural and economic dependence on services provided by both our terrestrial and marine ecosystems. With our nations committing to both land and sea protection we will contribute to the following global benefits:
- Safeguarding 500 gigatons of carbon stored in vegetation and soils
- Reducing the risk of zoonotic disease outbreaks like Covid-19
- Supporting 30 million jobs and $500 billion of GDP in ecotourism and sustainable fisheries
- Restoring depleted fishing grounds and fish populations by 600%; and
- Increasing food security and improving local economies
A promising backdrop to the 30×30 goal is the added incentive of financial support from both private and public sources, especially for ambitious and indebted nations like ours. As one Caribbean, it is not just feasible, but pragmatic to make a regional case for the scale of financing needed to ensure our contribution to this global deal for nature and people. Organisations like the Caribbean Biodiversity Fund and the Caribbean Climate Smart Accelerator understand this well.
Our collective voice is still much too subdued. To have a real impact, 30×30 requires everyone in our region to do their part. We gain more through one Caribbean battle cry. We’ve already shown the world our willingness to transition from small island nations to sustainable and resilient large ocean states. Participating in 30×30 is a natural evolutionary step in the advancement of our economies and peoples and the preservation of our Caribbean.
Eloquent words Minister – as usual. But where’s the action? We don’t need millions in international hand-outs to stop despoiling our own country! We just need an honest government that puts the country and its people before the profits of Chinese and other “investors” whilst lining ministers’ own pockets. Our island is being ruined at a furious rate by over-tourism and the wrong kind of tourism. Anything will do it seems as long as the right people benefit. This government so clearly does not care about the assets of this beautiful little country whether they’re in the ocean or on the land. And the Planning and Development Authority that should be controlling this is inadequately resourced and little more than the puppet of politicians and their cronies.
Thank you for your comment. Exactly. The whole shoreline of Grenada is being systematically destroyed. Look at La Sagesse, Levera Chinese who won’t let inspections in, that stupid one at Mount Hartman. You need to RESTRICT how much property a foreigner can own in Grenada. Siwaris has too much and therefore can put pressure on the government to do as he pleases. He is trying to destroy the virtual character of Grand Anse Beach by buying up all the land and destroying the Grenadian look and feel by his rich rich only hotels. Protect the charm and culture and environment we don’t need more hotels at the cost of more erosion. Also you forget the water and electricity demands of these hotels who take while locals have their water shut off. Locals FIRST!!!.
I may be remembering things wrong, but is Minister Stiell not a sitting member of the ruling government, and therefore, through deductive reasoning, is also responsible for the irreparable environmental harm that is currently being done to our pristine landscape including Ramsar sites?