GEORGETOWN, Guyana, Nov 2, CMC – The 15-member Caribbean Community (CARICOM) grouping Monday is calling on countries attending the 31st United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 31) to deliver a balanced, ambitious, and implementation-focused outcome that safeguards the 1.5°C temperature goal, advances climate justice, and provides the means of implementation that responds to the special circumstances of small island developing states (SIDS).
COP 31 will be held in Türkiye from November 9-20, and the regional ministers who hold responsibility for climate change and sustainable development have issued a declaration ahead of the deliberations.
In their declaration, the ministers say that climate change represents the greatest threat to the sustainable development, prosperity, and security of Caribbean SIDS, “and that every fraction of a degree of warming increases the risks to our countries posed by stronger hurricanes, sea-level rise, coastal erosion, biodiversity loss, disruption of livelihoods, and widening social and economic vulnerabilities”.
They said also that climate impacts are compounded by insecurity, humanitarian crises and institutional fragility, and emphasise the need for context-sensitive implementation arrangements for countries facing overlapping crises.
In addition, they note that the ecological transition offers an opportunity to mobilise productive investment and accelerate economic transformation and resilient prosperity across the Caribbean.
The CARICOM countries say they are “deeply concerned that the world remains off track to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement, that an overshoot of the 1.5°C limit is now likely within the next few years, and that growing geopolitical tensions, economic uncertainty, conflicts, and competing global crises are diverting attention and resources away from urgently needed climate action”.
They said they are also alarmed by the escalating losses and damages already being experienced across the Caribbean, which continue to erase decades of development gains, exacerbate debt burdens, constrain fiscal space, and undermine efforts to achieve sustainable development.
They acknowledge that adaptation is a matter of survival for the Caribbean “and that substantial gaps persist between our adaptation and resilience needs and the financial resources currently available for SIDS”.
They are also concerned by persistent constraints that the Caribbean faces to access official development assistance, and sustained, predictable, adequate and additional climate finance, on time, at scale and on terms that are affordable and do not deepen debt vulnerabilities.
The declaration notes that the Caribbean recognises the vital role of forests in addressing climate change and safeguarding biodiversity, including their contribution to carbon sequestration, ecosystem integrity, water security, and the livelihoods and resilience of local, tribal and Indigenous communities.
The Caribbean said that meaningful progress at COP 31 must deliver ambitious outcomes that respond to the special circumstances of SIDS “in this era of overshoot and increasing loss and damage.
”We therefore call upon Parties meeting in Antalya to deliver a balanced, ambitious, and implementation-focused COP 31 outcome that safeguards the 1.5°C temperature goal, advances climate justice, and provides the means of implementation that responds to the SIDS special circumstances,” they regional grouping said.
The ministers want COP 31 to reaffirm “that limiting global warming to 1.5°C remains the central objective of the Paris Agreement and the benchmark against which global climate ambition must be measured.
“We call for urgent action to limit the magnitude and duration of any exceedance of this goal and to return to below 1.5°C as soon as possible. We call once again upon all Parties, particularly major emitters, to strengthen their climate commitments and implement rapid, sustained and meaningful emissions reductions consistent with pathways that align with the 1.5°C temperature goal.
“We further urge the timely submission and implementation of ambitious Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), taking into account the 2023 UAE Consensus (COP 28), the best available science and the objectives of the Paris Agreement,” they said, re-confirming “the centrality of the best available science and traditional knowledge in informing the global climate response, and in assessing that response against the 1.5°C benchmarked goals of the Paris Agreement.”
They are also reaffirming “CARICOM’s commitment to unity, cooperation, and active engagement through the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), the Group of 77 and China, and all other relevant partnerships to secure ambitious outcomes at COP 31 that advance climate resilience, sustainable development, and the wellbeing of present and future generations.”
CMC/kj/ir/2026