Billions for Climate, But CARICOM Says Getting the Money Is Another Story

Caribbean countries met in Georgetown, Guyana, this week for a major climate meeting, with Belize’s Minister of Sustainable Development and Climate Change, Orlando Habet, leading the discussions.

The 124th Special Meeting of CARICOM’s Council for Trade and Economic Development brought together environment ministers from across the region from March 26 to 27, all facing the same concern: climate promises are being made at global summits, but not enough is happening to match them on the ground.

“We are the bridge between global commitments and local implementation,” Habet said to fellow ministers on the first day.

A big focus of the talks was money and the struggle small island nations face in actually getting climate funding. While wealthy countries and international financial institutions have pledged billions to help vulnerable nations adapt, ministers say the process of getting that money is often slow and overly complicated.

They pointed to complex application systems and limited technical support that can delay or even block access to urgently needed funds. CARICOM called for simpler systems and financing that actually fits the reality of smaller countries facing big climate threats.

With the next major UN climate summit, COP31, scheduled for November 2026, CARICOM made its position clear: “COP31 must be an ‘implementation COP’, focused on delivering tangible outcomes for vulnerable countries.”