Multi-million-dollar initiative to strengthen early warning systems in Belize and Trinidad and Tobago

The Bar­ba­dos-based De­vel­op­ment Bank (CDB) Tues­day said it is fi­nanc­ing a US$27.1 mil­lion ini­tia­tive to scale up hy­drom­e­te­o­ro­log­i­cal ser­vices and mul­ti-haz­ard ear­ly warn­ing sys­tems in Be­lize and Trinidad and To­ba­go.

The CDB said that the ini­tia­tive is be­ing fund­ed through its part­ner­ship with the Green Cli­mate Fund (GCF) and is in­tend­ed to strength­en the abil­i­ty of the two Caribbean Com­mu­ni­ty (CARI­COM) coun­tries to an­tic­i­pate, pre­pare for and re­spond to cli­mate-re­lat­ed haz­ards and ex­treme weath­er events.

The project is be­ing fi­nanced pri­mar­i­ly through a US$24.1 mil­lion grant, ap­proved by the GCF with the CDB al­so pro­vid­ing US$1.2 mil­lion in grant fi­nanc­ing while US1.88 mil­lion in coun­ter­part fund­ing will come from the gov­ern­ments of Be­lize and Trinidad and To­ba­go.

The project will be im­ple­ment­ed by the Caribbean Me­te­o­ro­log­i­cal Or­gan­i­sa­tion (CMO), the re­gion’s spe­cialised in­sti­tu­tion for me­te­o­rol­o­gy and cli­mate ser­vices, in part­ner­ship with na­tion­al me­te­o­ro­log­i­cal and dis­as­ter man­age­ment agen­cies in the ben­e­fi­cia­ry coun­tries.

The CDB said that the ini­tia­tive will strength­en the coun­tries’ ca­pac­i­ty to de­tect, mon­i­tor, analyse, fore­cast and com­mu­ni­cate in­for­ma­tion on weath­er, wa­ter and cli­mate-re­lat­ed haz­ards.

It will al­so sup­port im­prove­ments in dis­as­ter risk man­age­ment, cli­mate in­for­ma­tion ser­vices, in­sti­tu­tion­al ca­pac­i­ty, and the de­liv­ery of time­ly warn­ings to vul­ner­a­ble com­mu­ni­ties, help­ing to re­duce loss and dam­age from in­creas­ing­ly fre­quent and se­vere cli­mate-re­lat­ed events.

Be­lize and Trinidad and To­ba­go, like many oth­er Caribbean coun­tries, con­tin­ue to face grow­ing threats from cli­mate change, in­clud­ing hur­ri­canes, flood­ing, droughts, heat­waves and sea-lev­el rise. Strength­ened ear­ly warn­ing sys­tems are recog­nised as one of the most crit­i­cal and cost-ef­fec­tive tools for pro­tect­ing lives, liveli­hoods, in­fra­struc­ture and crit­i­cal eco­nom­ic sec­tors.

Di­rec­tor of CDB’s Projects De­part­ment, L. O’Reil­ly Lewis, said the in­ter­ven­tion re­flects a shared com­mit­ment by CDB and GCF to build­ing re­silience in vul­ner­a­ble Caribbean coun­tries.

“This in­vest­ment, made pos­si­ble through the Green Cli­mate Fund’s sup­port, rep­re­sents a crit­i­cal step in strength­en­ing cli­mate re­silience in Be­lize and Trinidad and To­ba­go.

“As cli­mate-re­lat­ed haz­ards be­come more fre­quent and se­vere, ro­bust ear­ly warn­ing sys­tems are es­sen­tial to pro­tect­ing com­mu­ni­ties, safe­guard­ing key eco­nom­ic sec­tors and pre­serv­ing de­vel­op­ment gains.

“The project ad­vances CDB’s strate­gic fo­cus on ac­cel­er­at­ing cli­mate ac­tion, strength­en­ing in­sti­tu­tions and build­ing so­cial and en­vi­ron­men­tal re­silience, while cre­at­ing a mod­el that can in­form sim­i­lar in­vest­ments across the Caribbean,” Lewis said.

The project is aligned with CDB’s Strate­gic Ob­jec­tives 2026-2035, par­tic­u­lar­ly its em­pha­sis on So­cial and En­vi­ron­men­tal Re­silience, Strength­en­ing In­sti­tu­tions, and Ac­cel­er­at­ing Cli­mate Ac­tion. It al­so sup­ports the achieve­ment of Sus­tain­able De­vel­op­ment Goal (SDG) 11, Sus­tain­able Cities and Com­mu­ni­ties, and SDG 13, Cli­mate Ac­tion. —BRIDGETOWN, Bar­ba­dos (CMC)