EU Launches Regional Climate Resilience Plan in the Caribbean
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – The European Union has announced plans for a new initiatives aimed at strengthening early warning systems, disaster response and community preparedness across the Caribbean.
The EU’s programme manager for disaster risk management, Virginie Andre, said the new EU-Caribbean initiatives are designed to focus heavily on improving meteorological forecasting, climate services, regional logistics, and public-private co-operation for disaster response and recovery.
Speaking on behalf of the Fiona Ramsey, the European Union Ambassador to Barbados, Andre told the three-day regional conference that the plan also includes direct structural support for regional bodies including the Barbados-based he Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) and the Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology (CIMH), to strengthen disaster risk management systems.
“Through the dialogue between Prime Minister (Mia) Mottley and the President of the European Commission, we are working together, not only to recover from disasters, but to anticipate them, strengthen preparedness, and build lasting resilience,” she said, adding “that dialogue is already producing concrete results.”
The conference is being held under the theme “Advancing Sustainable Community Resilience through Shared Responsibility,” and Andre said effective climate adaptation cannot be managed solely from administrative offices, but must start on the ground with ordinary citizens.
“When we speak about resilience, we know that resilience begins much more than anything at home. It begins with people. The neighbour who checks on the elderly living close by, the fishing community that understands when the sea is changing, the teacher who prepares the children, and the children who in turn prepare their parents. Communities are always the first responders. They experience disaster first and they are the first to begin and to start recovery.”
Andre recalled a personal encounter from 28 years ago with a young girl whose village had been devastated by a mudslide. The girl, who lost her entire family and suffered life-changing injuries, remained in contact with the official over the ensuing decades.
“What has stayed with me the most is not only her story of survival, but something she once told me: ‘No one ever really asked us what we needed.’ That simple sentence reminds us why community resilience is so important.
“Communities know exactly their vulnerabilities. They know their strengths. Our responsibility is to listen collectively and to turn their experience into better policies and better preparedness.”
Andre noted that the relationship between Europe and the Caribbean is reinforced by shared geography, as several European territories are located within the Caribbean basin and face identical climate hazards.
She said that no single entity can tackle the climate crisis alone, adding “the answer will not come from one government, one organisation, and certainly not from one international partner.
“It will come from partnership, from shared responsibility, and from listening to the people whose lives themselves they want first to protect. The European Union remains a trusted and long-term partner of Barbados and the Caribbean,” Andre added.
