“Stronger Together, with Peace, Love and Unity”
By Marco Lopez
On July 1, 2024, Hurricane Beryl breezed 150 kilometres off the southern coast of Barbados. The powerful storm that swept through our region inflicted significant damage across the island. This country, a small island developing state like many of its regional sister islands, is susceptible to disastrous climate change-induced impacts.
Barbados celebrates 58 years of Independence on November 30, 2024. The nation boasts a rich regional history rooted in a complex interplay of indigenous, African, and European influences. Today, the residents of the island, like many of us across the region, are focused on building climate resilience in the face of unpredictable hurricanes, prolonged droughts, and other climate impacts.
The Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) has worked closely with the government of Barbados since its inception. Ranked among the top 15 water-scarce countries in the world, the CCCCC, with support from the Green Climate Fund (GFC), is working to ensure the country’s water resources are protected.
Through the project titled “R’s (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) for Climate Resilience Wastewater Systems in Barbados (3R- CReWS)” or 3R -CreWS for short, Barbadians are transforming the way they reuse wastewater. By upgrading the Bridgetown Sewage Treatment Plant to a tertiary wastewater treatment facility, wastewater can be purified to make it safe for reuse in water-intensive processes like agriculture.
While primary and secondary treatment gets wastewater only clean enough to be discharged safely into the environment, upgrading to a tertiary treatment plant will allow residents to reuse wastewater, and in turn, conserve potable water.
This project is a component of the wider Roofs to Reef national strategy launched by the government of Barbados to tackle the challenge of surviving in the age of climate crisis, which the country’s Prime Minister, Mia Mottley, calls an existential threat.
Other components of the project include digitization and data utilisation to identify hazards and set response targets. Additionally, a key element of the national strategy is leveraging technology to transition to renewable energy sources, with a particular focus on solar PV systems. To encourage this, no licenses are required for residential systems up to 10KW, and net metering has been instituted to allow homeowners to sell surplus electricity they generate back to the utility company. These measures are designed to promote the adoption of renewable energy at the local level.
However, despite this, Barbados, like all of the Caribbean, remains on the frontlines of climate change and can do very little to curb the global emissions that continue to push the world closer to breaching the 1.5-degree limit set by the Paris Agreement.
This year, at COP29, PM Mottley, in Barbados’s national statement, said, “The climate-driven, extreme weather events that the world has witnessed in the last year, suggest that humanity and the planet are hurtling toward what may be regarded, not as a tipping point, but as the ultimate tipping point. Indeed, many no longer even think of 1.5 as a possible goal, presenting a real and present danger for people and the planet.”
As Barbados celebrates this milestone, its 58th year of independence, we celebrate the strong leadership the nation has provided for the region and the world to address climate change. This year’s celebration theme, “Stronger Together with Peace, Love and Unity,” is indicative of the essence of Barbados.
Happy Independence.
