Sustainable infrastructure: A tool for climate change adaptation & risk reduction in the Caribbean

The Caribbean faces a plethora of varied challenges. These include social issues like crime, economic challenges from high sovereign debt loads, and exposure to health crises that snowball into socioeconomic and cultural issues. Possibly no other challenge is as constant as the region’s susceptibility to natural disasters like hurricanes and earthquakes. These challenges are currently being compounded by the ever present and existential risk of climate change, as it affects the frequency and severity of common natural hazards.

According to the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, risk is the potential loss of life, injury, or destroyed or damaged assets which could occur to a system, society, or a community in a specific period of time. Risk can be disaggregated into a function of the exposure of a community or location to the hazard, the vulnerability of the community or area to the event and the capacity of the community to respond to the event. From this it is clear, climate change is a key driver of increased disaster risk, as the frequency and intensity of hazards is set to increase, the vulnerability of populations will increase due to job disruptions, economic instability, and food insecurity, while decreasing the capacity of populations to respond to these more frequent events.

Many argue that the region is already experiencing impacts of a changing climate due to communities already experiencing more frequent and intense precipitation events, sea level rise, coastal erosion, increased temperatures, and more variable rainfall patterns. This increases the risk to the population by decreasing the economic capacity of the state and individual to respond to these more frequent events and increases the vulnerability of the population by placing pressure on social services such as healthcare. These effects are only expected to worsen and will pose a challenge to the region’s development. For example, vulnerabilities are expected to increase as a result of climate change on islands in the Caribbean as most settlements are in the coastal zone or along waterways, which are affected by sea level rise coastal erosion, and saltwater intrusion.

These effects will affect lives and livelihoods, and can have severe economic, social, and environmental consequences for Caribbean countries, and which heavily depend on their natural resources in the agriculture and tourism industries. Adapting to climate change and its impacts means that Caribbean countries will have to address both current and future environmental challenges, while addressing current physical, social, and economic barriers to development objectives. Despite this challenge, the region has enacted ambitious national socioeconomic development plans and bold low carbon transition targets in the energy sector. The latter has been particularly important in attempting to catalyse local action as well as to facilitate international investment in decarbonization and sustainable development.

The build-out of infrastructure has played a significant role in meeting this development agenda in the region and is seen as a key mode of reducing risk by decreasing vulnerabilities while increasing capacity to respond to events. Infrastructure encompasses all physical structures and services which are necessary for the smooth running of society, including telecommunication systems, water and sanitation services, electricity, and transportation networks. High quality infrastructure can decrease the environmental impact of services, improve commercial and administrative efficiency, catalyse investment, and provides access to new and varied goods and services.

With sovereign treasuries already tightened from combatting the economic impact of the plethora of crises explored above, investment in infrastructure needs to be targeted at endeavours which yield the maximum public good while ensuring investments are fit for purpose, cost-effective and built to last. Therefore, it is crucial that governments invest public funds in sustainable infrastructure - projects which are planned, designed, implemented, and decommissioned to ensure economic, financial, social, environmental, and institutional sustainability over the project’s lifecycle.

Investment in sustainable infrastructure can assist with reducing future impacts of climate change and natural disasters by having a greater access to necessary services during and post event and reducing the damage to property thereby reducing the economic cost of events. This includes the construction of climate resilient roads, sea walls, drainage systems and the implementation of building codes which can allow infrastructure to better withstand extreme weather events.

In recent years, the energy sector has been a leverage point for sustainable infrastructure investment, and still presents a key opportunity for low carbon sustainable development in the region. With the abundant renewable energy resources available in the region, the increased demand for energy as countries develop can be met through harnessing these resources. By continuing to invest in solar PV, hydro, wind and geothermal energy Caribbean countries can continue to promote decentralised energy generation, self-generation and a diversified energy matrix. These factors all contribute to a more robust and resilient energy infrastructure, with more capability to withstand and come back online after a disaster event.

In addition to clean energy infrastructure, sustainable infrastructure includes reconstructed wetlands, forests, coral reefs and other systems which provide ecosystem services. These services include coastal zone protection, flood control, erosion control and water filtration services. By investing in these ‘green’ sustainable infrastructure initiatives nations and communities can enhance natural defences against natural disasters, reducing the cost of recovery and response to disaster events and mitigating the impacts of climate change impacts. For example, by enhancing a naturally occurring mangrove forest a community can reduce the exposure of transportation, telecommunication and housing infrastructure to storm surges.

In integrating sustainable infrastructure solutions in adapting to climate change governments and the private sector must consider gender and social inclusion alongside traditional financial metrics of success. Infrastructure must meet the needs of all members of society, including men, women, children, the elderly and the disabled. By implementing infrastructure that is socially inclusive members of underserved groups in a country can reduce their vulnerability in the event of a disaster due to continued access to essential social services such as telecommunications, healthcare and transportation.

Cost remains a significant barrier to progress in the implementation of sustainable infrastructure and climate change adaptation initiatives. Rethinking the way traditional infrastructure and services are employed and operated can be a barrier to implementation, particularly when there is a high upfront cost to investing in new, sustainable solutions over maintaining the status quo. However, in situations where economic and financial analysis supports solutions with a reduced maintenance cost that promote resilience and reduced economic impact due to climate change effects, governments in the region must continue to employ sustainable infrastructure solutions. This compounds the importance of robust financial and socioeconomic modelling to backstop public infrastructure development.

While the Caribbean continues to be vulnerable and exposed to natural disasters and climate change impacts, there are tools available to adapt to these impacts while contributing to national development targets. Governments need to continue on their path to low carbon development by expanding their low carbon energy programs to include more aspects of sustainable infrastructure. Recent studies suggest that a 1.5-degree warmer world is already a reality, therefore Caribbean governments and communities must continue to adapt to the impact of climate change to reduce the risk posed by disasters. The significant challenges present provide an opportunity for transformational change, and incorporate the continued use of infrastructure solutions to meet the short term and long term needs of communities living in the region as they navigate a warmer, more uncertain future.

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Are you prepared for the future? Extreme weather events, rising sea levels, and shifting climate patterns are becoming the new normal in the Caribbean. It's time to protect your investments and communities by adapting to these changes now!

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