Hurricane Beryl, the strongest Atlantic hurricane on record in June, was a powerful reminder of how a single landfalling tropical cyclone can set back years of development. The hurricane was fueled by warming ocean temperatures and intensified rapidly, a phenomenon that is becoming more frequent as a result of climate change.
But amid the catastrophe, there are also some successes: fewer lives were lost due to Beryl compared to previous hurricanes, such as Hurricane Maria in 2017. This was the result of years of investment in strengthening early warning systems by Caribbean nations and support from regional and international bodies.
In an opinion article published in the newspaper Trinidad & Tobago GuardianKamal Kishore, from the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, Elizabeth Riley, from the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), and Celeste Saulo, from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), call for continued efforts to Strengthening multi-hazard early warning systems in the Caribbeanthereby achieving the objectives of the Early Warnings for All initiative by 2027.
For your interest, we reproduce here this opinion article:
Hurricane Beryl It has entered the history books as the most powerful hurricane ever recorded. in the Atlantic Ocean during the month of June.
The appearance of such a powerful storm so early in the hurricane season was inevitable as climate change continues to create more extreme weather events. What is not inevitable, however, is that people will have to die or suffer as a result of these weather events.
In fact, one success story amidst the destruction inflicted by Hurricane Beryl on the Caribbean islands is that Fewer people died compared to similar hurricanes in the pastsuch as Hurricane Maria in 2017 or Hurricane Ivan in 2004.
This is the result of years of investment in strengthening early warning systems by Caribbean nations and the support of regional bodies such as the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency, the Caribbean Meteorological Organization and the Caribbean Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology, as well as the WMO Hurricane Committee and the WMO-designated Regional Specialized Meteorological Centre for Tropical Cyclones, operated by the United States National Hurricane Center.
We must continue to strengthen multi-hazard early warning systems in the Caribbean, through efforts such as the recently announced Climate Risk Early Warning Systems (CREWS) Caribbean 2.0 project, if we are to achieve the goals of the Early Warnings for All initiative by the end of 2027.
However, although deaths from catastrophes are on a downward trend, the cost of these natural disasters is increasing. Rising social and economic costs are a problem facing all countries.but is felt most acutely in Small Island Developing States (SIDS).
It may be months before we know the full cost of the catastrophe caused by Hurricane Beryl, but early indications point to an extremely costly disaster. Beryl affected more than 11,000 people on the Grenadine islands of Grenada and St Vincent, disrupting lives, livelihoods and life opportunities. In St Vincent and the Grenadines, 90% of homes on Union Island were reportedly destroyed or severely damaged.
While some countries can reduce their exposure to disasters by moving economic assets away from shorelines, this is not an option for small island states that are fully exposed. This means that their only viable option is to improve the social and economic resilience, as well as the physical resilience of their homes, businesses and infrastructure.
Developed countries must fulfil their promises to double funding for climate adaptation to at least $40 billion per year by 2025 and adequately capitalize the Loss and Damage Fund.
The recently adopted Antigua and Barbuda Agenda for Small Island States is a powerful policy instrument that, together with global partnerships such as the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI), can be an invaluable resource for these countries, supporting the delivery of results within regionally driven imperatives such as the Comprehensive Caribbean Disaster Management Strategy. The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction has collaborated with the Coalition to assist countries in achieving their goals. Test your infrastructure systems and identify vulnerabilities.
And while integrating resilience into new infrastructure adds around 3% to overall investment costs, this amount is minuscule compared to the long-term benefits gained in reducing damage and service disruptions.
A study of the Global Center on Adaptation has shown that Resilient infrastructure can generate up to $12 for every dollar invested.
Despite this strong return on investment, financing, including for resilient recovery, is a burden for many developing countries, especially the aforementioned island states, which are already saddled with large debts and have limited fiscal space.
Developed countries must therefore honour their pledges to double climate adaptation funding to at least $40 billion annually by 2025 and adequately capitalise the Loss and Damage Fund.
This is fair considering that countries like Those in the Caribbean have contributed the least to creating the climate crisis, but they continue to pay the highest costs.
We hope that the real legacy of Hurricane Beryl is not its record-breaking strength or the amount of destruction it caused, but that it was a turning point for the world. We need to move from passively accepting disasters to actively preventing them by investing in disaster risk reduction. Otherwise, all hurricanes will inevitably lead to disasters.
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