“Small States Paying the Price for Climate Injustice” – Sir Ronald Sanders

Antigua and Barbuda’s Ambassador, Sir Ronald Sanders, says the Caribbean is being forced into a vicious cycle of borrowing and rebuilding as climate disasters intensify while financing options remain stacked against small states.

Addressing more than 200 participants at an Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) consultation on poverty, debt and climate change, Sanders argued that the global system is failing vulnerable nations.

“When a Category-5 storm wipes out homes, roads and power, governments must borrow to rebuild—again and again,” he said, adding that insurance markets are tightening and premiums are rising beyond reach.

The envoy pointed to alarming signs across the region: rising ocean temperatures fueling coral bleaching, sea levels creeping up by 3.4 millimeters each year, and a record sargassum bloom crippling coastal communities. Studies warn that without major adaptation, Caribbean nations could see up to 47 percent of tourism revenue lost by the end of the century.

Yet the resources to respond remain far short of the need. Sanders highlighted that annual disaster losses already swallow about 2 percent of GDP, while adaptation demands another 3.4 percent—numbers that dwarf what small island states actually receive, which is barely 2 percent of global adaptation finance.

The economic squeeze is compounded by talent loss, with nearly 70 percent of the Caribbean’s highly educated workforce now living abroad. Sanders said outdated reliance on per-capita income masks the reality of small states’ fragility and cuts them off from affordable finance.

He pressed for swift adoption of the UN’s Multidimensional Vulnerability Index to better reflect exposure to climate shocks and unlock concessional funding. And framing the issue in stark terms, Sanders said both debt and climate financing must be treated as matters of human rights, since they determine whether governments can still deliver essential services to their people.