IPCC: Climate Change Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability for Small Islands in the Caribbean

When: 25 March 2022 9:00 (GMT-5 Panama, Jamaica) / 10:00 (ECT Barbados, Trinidad & Tobago)

Streaming on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFdfKvWiN6w

Registration form

According to the recent IPCC report on Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability, small islands in the Caribbean are highly exposed, vulnerable and heavily impacted by climate change, a situation amplified by inequality, poverty, the concentration of population in coastal areas, the threat to freshwater systems and the pressure and changes on biodiversity and ecosystems, such as corals.

In this context, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) invites government agents, the scientific-academic community, NGOs, private sector and general audience to the 3rd Webinar aimed at disseminating the most relevant findings of this report with emphasis on small islands in the Caribbean region, as well as to address the most frequently asked questions on the adaptation options for the region. 

Some of the guiding questions to be addressed are: What are the cascading and compounding impacts across both natural and human systems in the small islands in the Caribbean? How does climate change affect the water resources in the Caribbean? Why downscaled climate information is important and how to make sure it is available? 

The session will be attended by IPCC lead authors of the report from the region so that the main implications derived from the document can be explained. The event is the 3rd in a series of sessions on the Working Group II Report, which will elaborate on the impacts on key sub-regions and sectors in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Panelists 

Michelle Mycoo, Coordinating Lead Author, Chapter 15 (WGII) on Small Islands of the IPCC 6th Assessment Report. Professor of Urban and Regional Planning, Department of Geomatics Engineering & Land Management, the University of the West Indies, Trinidad and Tobago. 

Shobha Maharaj, Independent Researcher: IPCC 6th Assessment Report (WGII) Lead author on (i) Chapter 15 on Small Islands and (iii) Cross-Chapter Paper 1: Biodiversity Hotspots. Caribbean Environmental Sciences and Renewable Energy Journal.

Adelle Thomas, Lead author, Chapter 16 (WGII) on Key Risks Across Sectors and regions and Cross-Chapter Paper: Cities and Settlements by the Sea of the IPCC 6th Assessment Report. Researcher, Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience Research Centre, University of The Bahamas; Caribbean Science Lead, Climate Analytics.

Host

Vincent Sweeney, Head, Sub-regional office UNEP.

Moderator

Ismael Sayyad Hernando, Regional Adaptation Specialist, Office for Latin America and the Caribbean, UNEP