Calling The Bahamas’ efforts to map out and monetize its blue carbon assets bold and ambitious, United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC) Global Ambassador Racquel Moses said the next step is for the entire region to band together and build off of the model being created.
Researchers have estimated that The Bahamas has the second largest seagrass meadow in the world, which the Davis administration has charged a management company with placing on the carbon credits secondary markets by the end of this year.
Moses, who is also the CEO of Caribbean Climate-Smart Accelerator (CCSA), said the entire region can benefit from The Bahamas taking this first step.
“I think The Bahamas is being very bold and ambitious and we’re really excited about that,” she said in an interview with Guardian Business.
“I feel there are a number of ways in which The Bahamas can serve as an example and specifically around the issue of blue carbon exchange because it is uncovered ground for us.
“We are not necessarily capitalizing on the opportunities that we have, and I see this as a key chance for The Bahamas to do that – capitalize on the opportunities that we have.”
Moses continued, “The missing piece right now is that we’re not doing it all together and some of the countries have as little as 10 hectares of mangroves. That is not something you can monetize on its own. We’re really going to have to aggregate these projects to monetize them, to be able to get the mass rehabilitation we require. But I certainly think that The Bahamas is bold …
“… If you monetize sea grass, you will be the first to do so.
“Yes, I understand that the rest of us don’t have as much as The Bahamas, but that’s OK. If you go first and show us how to do it, then that’s something we can learn from. I also think the way your people on the ground are engaged in mangrove rehabilitation is an absolute example. There are other examples across the region but certainly The Bahamas is one we should be looking to.”
Among other things, Moses’ firm CCSA raises awareness and ensures that small island developing states (SIDS) receive assistance to become more resilient in the face of climate change threats like rising sea levels and more severe weather events.
In July, while addressing the CARICOM 43rd Regular Heads of Government Meeting, Prime Minister Philip Davis estimated that the region needs $41 million to safeguard against natural disasters.
In August, The Bahamas hosted government officials from across the Caribbean to finalize a regional position for the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27).
They agreed to demand industrialized countries set up a future compensations fund for nations hard hit by climate change, put two percent of oil exports into a fund, and focus more attention on loss and damage.
Though global financial institutions, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF), have agreed industrialized nations must provide more climate financing to SIDS, they have also argued that developing states focus on reducing their own CO2 emissions.
“That’s an absolute farce,” Moses said.
He added, “Come on, that is utterly ridiculous. In the region, we are on average actually doing quite well.
“Barbados is an example of using solar water heaters that should be an example to the globe. We have incredibly bold ambition with the decks stacked against us. So, the fact that we are on the front lines facing these increasingly ferocious hurricanes, the rising sea levels, the coral bleaching, the loss of biodiversity, I don’t think there is anyone who can say with any seriousness that we don’t have the moral high ground to advocate what we need.
“Our emissions, as a region, everyone, all together, is less than a percent of global emissions, and if you take Trinidad out of that, we don’t even register. So, with all due respect, give me a break. They could not be serious, the IMF. They couldn’t be serious.”
That does not mean, Moses said, that Caribbean nations should not attempt to lower their targets.
“We need to do it for us,” she said.
“We keep talking about climate finance as if it’s one thing but climate finance is many different things. There is no end of money available but, unfortunately, that is encumbered money. That is loan money. That is equity money. That is some kind of money that has conditionality attached to it.
“We need more grant financing …
“So, the minute we talk about climate finance, people say well, wait a minute, there’s money available, [but] it’s not that kind of money that we can use, it’s not the kind of money we are ready for. Anyone who is suggesting that we should further in-debt ourselves on the backs of somebody else’s fortune, which is the carbon in the atmosphere, then that is both unjust and unfair.”