The following section will bring our attention to the main environmental challenges faced by Barbados and therefore by Mia Mottley, including a section with the impact these challenges have, as well as provide a discussion of the leader’s stake.
Rising sea levels are the main challenge of Barbados. Small islands like Barbados, which do not expel much CO2, still face the risk of disappearing due to the consequences of climate change. This significant risk is one of the main reasons to push policy preferences towards climate change mitigation and adaptation. Furthermore, another incentive is human security, which Mia Mottley tries to tackle as the damages of severe weather events and the people affected is considerably high. And last but not least, an explanation of biodiversity loss of the country will be included to understand the impact this will have on Barbadians and their economy.
The majority of modern climate change is caused by global warming. Global warming is caused by excessive greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, primarily expelled into the environment by humans. By exacerbating the global greenhouse effect and raising average temperatures, global climate systems suffer from effects of volatility, we are seeing rising sea levels, rising sea temperatures, and increased ice melt.
Rising sea levels
This phenomenon is mainly caused by different human activities like burning fossil fuels or transportation of humans and goods, which releases carbon dioxide. The ocean absorbs the majority of the heat which ends up in melting water from glaciers and ice sheets and as a consequence, ocean levels increase. In 2022 the average sea level was 101.2 millimetres (4 inches) above 1993 levels, so indeed a relatively worrying statistic which Barbados will suffer from.
Sea Level Rise presents lots of consequences to coastal life, including increased intensity of storms surges, flooding, damage to coastal areas, displacing people and contaminating soil and groundwater with salt.
Barbados is an island located in the Eastern Caribbean with 166 square miles and 287,375 residents. The rising sea levels are relevant to Barbados because it is a flat island, as the highest point is 334 m above sea level, which makes its coastal zone vulnerable to sea level rise, hurricanes and flooding. The main issue is that 47,000 persons and 24% of human settlement is located in the Low Elevation Coastal Zone (LECZ), this is the contiguous zone up to a 10 m elevation.
In addition to this, 70% of the hotels located in Barbados for tourists are situated within 250m of the coastal line. According to the UNEP, these areas are within the predicted inundation zones.
Extreme Weather Events
Since 2010, Barbados has been significantly affected by hurricanes such as Tomas (2010), Ernesto (2012), Harvey (2017), and Elsa (2021), as well as tropical storms like Matthew, Maria, Kirk, and Gonzalo (2020). These events have caused extensive damage and disruption to daily life. According to the World Bank, the Annual Average Loss (AAL) from hurricanes in Barbados is US$ 48M (0.9% of GDP). In a scope of 250 years the World Bank predicts that the Probable Maximum Loss for hurricanes is US$ 2.5B (47.8% of GDP).
Therefore, it is clear that countries like Barbados, which face significant threats from natural disasters due to their geographic location, incur considerable expenses that other countries may not have to bear. Natural disasters are currently pushing 100.7 million people into poverty worldwide, and by 2030, this number is projected to increase by an additional 36.7 million people.
Biodiversity Loss
The Caribbean region in which Barbados is located is characterised by a high number of biological diversity and fragile terrestrial, marine and coastal ecosystems. Due to the region’s insularity, there is a high level of endemism which has fostered isolated evolutionary patterns. The study from the UNEP suggests that up to 80% of living coral in the Caribbean reefs has disappeared in the past 20 years, primarily due to rising sea temperatures and sea surface temperatures. Loss of coral reefs and mangroves have as a consequence the reduction of biodiversity and affect both marine and terrestrial species.
Biodiversity is mainly affected by habitat loss which is caused by tourism developments, unsustainable land use practices, land clearance and golf course developments. Additional issues like the introduction of invasive species and sewage production affect biodiversity directly. Specific threats to flagship include overexploitation of sea turtle stocks.
In the biodiversity sector the sargassum plays a crucial role. Since the year 2011, vast, sporadic influxes of floating sargassum seaweed have inundated the Caribbean coasts. The 2021 UNEP Sargassum White Paper reports that Caribbean regions can have up to 100 metric tonnes of sargassum per kilometre of shoreline each day during an inundation period. The direct consequences of these influxes is shorelines full of sargassum, resulting in economic losses and social and health negative impact .
The limited land area and interdependence of the economy and environment in Barbados make conservation efforts challenging. Agriculture, fisheries, building, housing, transportation and tourism are the main sectors of Barbados’ economy, and they rely heavily on the natural environment to develop their activities.
Environmental degradation and water contamination affects the influx of tourists by affecting the country’s reputation. In the case of agriculture, change of precipitation due to climate change or the degradation of the fertile land negatively affects this sector, as well as fisheries, transportation and housing.
Furthermore, natural disasters like hurricanes and tropical storms cause significant damage and disruption. Hurricane Elsa, for example, resulted in at least 145 collapsed homes and an additional 2,227 reported incidents of damages or otherwise. These severe weather events, combined with others such as droughts, altered rainfall patterns, disease, and storms affect food production, water security and the health of the population.
The challenges mentioned before have direct negative effects over coastal resources, people living in Barbados and the infrastructure of the island, particularly affecting larger sectors like tourism. The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean states that tourism contributed 10-12,5% of the GDP of the country in 2011.
However with the combination of the impacts due to a reduction of tourist arrivals because of the coral reef loss, the increasing sea level rise, and severe climate events such as hurricanes, the estimated total economic impact under both scenarios would ascend to a total amount of $7,648 million in the high emissions scenario and $5,127 million in the low emissions scenario as we can see in the table below.
Vulnerable groups, such as youth, women, and lower-income communities, are the ones most affected because of the lack of resources. The social and economic effects of climate change are significant, affecting health through increased heat stress and a higher prevalence of water and vector-borne diseases. For instance, Barbados has the highest incidence of dengue cases. Barbadians use rainwater storage because there is not enough freshwater available and this cause breeding sites for the disease vector of dengue, the Aedes aegypti mosquito).
Water resources are strained, with reduced availability due to drought or contamination from flooding, soil or pollutant infiltration, or saline intrusion. The fishery and agricultural industries are two examples of facing climate challenges, including loss of competitiveness due to drought, flooding, storm damage, saline intrusion, pest outbreaks, invasive species, and ecosystem destruction. Financial risk and insurance are also affected, with climate change projections directly influencing insurance costs, availability, and real estate market values. To sum up, climate change affects less prepared sectors.
Mia Mottley has compelling incentives and interests driving her to push climate policies. Key among these needs are tackling national and economic security in the face of climate threats, and ensuring human security to provide well-being and health for the population. The sum of these factors underscore her commitment to implementing robust climate action.
The main issue is Barbados’s level of debt, in 2021, the debt-to-GDP ratio was 148.11%. As Prime Minister, Motley managed to reduce this debt and achieve the still high number of 107,46% in 2024. However it is difficult to reduce this debt when there are damages caused by hurricanes and other weather events that must be repaired frequently. Without any urgent changes, the Caribbean as a whole faces projected annual costs of US$22 billion by 2050 and US$46 billion by 2100.
Regarding economic security, Mottley’s strategy included pushing for economic diversification and protecting vital sectors like tourism and agriculture from climate impacts. By renegotiating debt and securing funds from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) with different conditions through innovative financial instruments like hurricane clauses, Mottley aimed to stabilise and diversify the economy, ensuring long-term economic security despite climate challenges. The government of Barbados, with the help of UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD), has been working on post-pandemic recovery, focusing on economic diversification to achieve a more sustainable growth path. The recommendation is to transform to a new infrastructure and capability, promoting payment systems, while also adopting sustainable data laws and regulations.
In addition to this, regional integration with other Caribbean economies will be fundamental to achieve this diversification of the economy as regional partners could better achieve the national objectives. Lastly, promoting south-south cooperation at the global level to promote trade, investment, financial and industrial cooperation could generate more diversified development sources.
It is additionally relevant to mention the lobbying made by her for the polluting countries of the world as the big issue of COP 27, in which she gave an important speech. She claims that developing nations have to face a US$1 trillion loss and damage bill but the developed nations, which are main producers of carbon emissions, would not pay this. After heavy lobbying from the island of Barbados, the United Kingdom government announced a loan scheme with the name of “Climate Resilient Debt Clauses”, which offers low income class countries and small islands the possibility to defer debt payments for two years in the case that a natural disaster occurs.
Finally, when we refer to human security, we reference Mottley’s efforts to enhance climate resilience through projects that protect housing, infrastructure, and essential services. Initiatives like the “Roofs to Reefs” plan focus on restoring and fortifying physical and ecological infrastructure, ensuring that Barbadians have secure housing and reliable access to water and food supplies, which are increasingly threatened by climate change.
As the International Disaster Database established, from the year 2002, including droughts, tropical cyclones and earthquakes, a total of 8,860 persons have been affected by these natural disasters. To have a better perspective of this data we should reiterate that Barbados is an island of 430 km2 with a population of 287,375 people. The affected population accounts for 3.7% of total inhabitants.
IExRAIA Summer Research Program:
This article is an excerpt from a report about Mia Mottley produced as part of an RAIA research program on climate leaders. For a full picture of Mottley’s climate leadership, read the full report. This project was fully financed by IE University’s IE School of Politics, Economics and Global Affairs.
Authors: Africa Romero and Sofia Damasio Figuereido
Editor: Roxane de Bervegin
Project Lead: Francia Morales
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