Grenada fights climate change

Two IKI projects showcase how Grenada is dealing with climate change through adaptation measures and green cooling.

Tropical storms, floods and rising sea levels threaten the Caribbean island country of Grenada, one of the developing countries deeply affected by the impacts of climate change. Hurricane ‘Matthew’ that severely stroke Haiti in September 2016 left Grenada untroubled. But damages from extreme weather events like in 2004 and 2005 are still visible. The rising sea level is also leading to an erosion of coastlines while hurricanes regularly devastate crucial infrastructure, also disrupting the water supply. The consequences - growing periods of dry spells - have been catastrophic for the people of Grenada.

Since 2012 the Federal Ministry for the Environment (BMUB) supports the project ‘Integrated Climate Change Adaptation Strategies (ICCAS)’ through its International Climate Initiative (IKI). It has been fostering the island state of Grenada in enhancing the resilience of the population and ecosystems that are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. In October 2016, the Government of Grenada held its final consultation for developing a National Climate Change Adaptation Plan (NAP). Following 9 sector-specific consultations throughout 2015/2016, 67 stakeholders from various sectors gathered again to finalize the draft NAP. The NAP process was originally created by the United Nations as an opportunity for countries to plan for robust, sustainable development in the face of climate stress.

In addition, regional representatives from the Caribbean Community Climate Change Center, Jamaica as well as donors attended the national consultation to share their experience and to learn from Grenada’s NAP process. The NAP Global Network, a forum which aims to facilitate international peer learning and exchange, also attended. Its Caribbean lead Alec Crawford commented “While each country’s NAP process is unique, we’re seeing exciting shared lessons emerge about how countries can create and implement these plans to prepare for climate change impacts. Grenada is a very active member of our network, engaging with international peers like Jamaica, Albania and the Philippines to identify its own adaptation path while becoming a regional NAP leader.”

Another effort of the ICCAS project was the official commissioning of the first community based rainwater harvesting system for the local population. With the system a more reliable water supply and improved hygienic conditions can be secured. This offers a new possibility for water production and supply on the islands Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique. 

The ICCAS Programme is funded with € 5.2 million by the BMUB as part of its IKI. The pilot programme is implemented jointly by the Environment Division of the Ministry of Education, Human Resource Development and the Environment, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

A different approach to fight climate change was taken by another IKI project ‘Cool Contributions fighting Climate Change (C4)’. The project’s aim is to reduce and avoid the annual consumption of climate-damaging F-gases. These fluorinated greenhouse gases are used for cooling and air-conditioning and it is estimated that the annual consumption of F-gases will quadruple by 2030.

For that reason, policy makers, industry representatives and stakeholders from the cooling and climate change sectors in Grenada came together on a day in September for a project inception workshop on green cooling and its relevance for climate change. During the Workshop, the participants together with representatives from the implementing agency, the GIZ, discussed opportunities and challenges of including the refrigeration and air-conditioning (RAC) sector into Grenada’s nationally determined contributions (NDCs) as part of the international climate negotiations. The project is supported with € 4.7 million through the IKI of the BMUB.

Grenada will benefit directly from the project through the establishment of a detailed inventory of the RAC sector, a set of policy briefs and recommendations for the key policymakers involved in developing the national mitigation strategy to assist them in maximizing the climate mitigation potential in the RAC sector.
Both projects contribute to the implementation of Grenada’s nationally determined contributions.