As rising seas and stronger storms threaten the very existence of the Bahamas, the country’s leader is trying to turn its oceans into a ready source of cash. The proceeds would fund a response to the worsening climate crisis — particularly if rich countries are paying.
“What I’m looking forward to, first of all, is an acknowledgement that the industrialized world that became wealthy as they are today was as a direct result of their use of fossil fuels and coal,” said Philip Davis, prime minister of the Bahamas, in an interview Tuesday in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, on the sidelines of COP27. “So should they not be held responsible for that?”
The Bahamas is already on the front lines. Hurricane Dorian, a massive Category 5 storm in 2019, caused billions of dollars in damage. Davis estimates 40% of the country’s debt is directly linked to the impacts of climate change.
Caribbean nations have emerged as innovators in climate finance this year, getting more creative and more direct in calls for compensation. Barbados announced a plan in September to restructure some of its debt in a way that will help pay for conserving the ocean. These bold appeals to secure increased climate finance for some of the most vulnerable counties rely on an undeniable fact: small-island nations bear virtually no responsibility for the planet-warming pollution that’s intensifying storms and pushing up the seas.
“We only account for maybe a half of 1% of emissions,” Gaston Brown, prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda, said at COP27 of island nations like his. “So what we’re asking for is climate justice.”
Developing nations from all over the world are collaborating at COP27 to secure more money to help pay for their transition to clean energy, adapt to increased warming, and respond to destruction caused by climate change. This is the first year that such damages, known as “loss and damage” in bureaucratic speak, is formally on the agenda at the United Nations summit. If adopted, which remains a longshot, a loss-and-damage mechanism would deliver money and technical assistance from wealthy, emitting countries to developing nations that suffer storms, droughts and heat waves.