The Caribbean Community for Climate Change Centre and the United Kingdom have launched the £2.7-million Small Island Developing States Capacity and Resilience (SIDAR) Programme for the Caribbean.

The official launch event was held on Tuesday, February 20, and follows the signing of a memorandum of understanding in September 2023 between the United Kingdom and the CCCCC for funding in the amount of £2.7 million.

Overall, the UK has given commitment for £11.6bn in climate finance, with a specific aim to support Small Island Developing States (SIDS) for adaptation and resilience. The SIDAR programme represents a delivery on part of that commitment. The SIDAR Caribbean programme aims to augment access to climate finance and support programmatic acceleration of climate resilient actions in selected Caribbean countries. The UK’s assistance of the CCCCC will aid CARICOM states in accessing climate financing.

Through the CCCCC, the programme will help address the barriers that Caribbean SIDS face in planning for, accessing, and effectively utilising climate finance. The programme is aimed at facilitating the increase in planning and implementation facilities and allow for a simplification of the funding process. The target countries set to benefit from the programme are Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and Grenadines, Suriname.

The Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) is an intergovernmental organisation established by the heads of governments of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to coordinate the region’s response to managing and adapting to climate change. The CCCCC also serves as a delivery partner for climate finance for the region, a repository for regional climate change information and data a provider of climate change-related policy advice and guidelines to the CARICOM member states.

British High Commissioner to Jamaica Judith Slater expressed optimism about the opportunities that will come from the programme.

“This programme is only one of the ways in which the UK continues to demonstrate its commitment to Small Island Developing States (SIDS).The launch of this initiative under the SIDAR programme marks an important moment in our collective efforts to combat the impacts of climate change. Through this partnership, and possibly others to come, we will help to tackle some of those technical issues which get in the way of faster and reliable access to climate finance, and stymie the delivery of climate projects. Through close collaboration with the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC), the UK is delivering on its promise to help unlock greater amounts of climate finance, strengthen resilience, and secure a sustainable future for SIDS, including those in the Caribbean,” she said.

Executive director of the CCCCC, Dr Colin Young, emphasised the significance of the programme: “The CCCCC is pleased to partner with the UK to implement the SIDAR programme in Caribbean that will increase both the flow and scale of climate finance to CARICOM Member States as well as strengthen their capacity to effectively utilize these resources. We are especially excited that through SIDAR, the CCCCC will embed 7 project developers and 7 project officers in 7 member states, who will directly work with them to mobilise climate finance to build climate resilience. This is a historic achievement! The CCCCC expresses its gratitude to the UK for tangibly assisting the region to improve access, absorption and delivery of climate finance.”

Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation Matthew Samuda was also present and expressed gratitude for the programme.

The CCCCC, in partnership with CARICOM member states, will develop funding proposals that are aligned to national priorities for submission to various financial mechanisms under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and other multilateral and bilateral financing partners. The partnership is expected to assist in gaining access to up to US$50million across the region in the next three years.

In addition to the launch, a two-day workshop is being held with the aim of enhancing the capacity and expertise among member states. Attendees will benefit from training that places specialised emphasis on honing regional procurement strategies, improving project implementation techniques, and navigating issues pertaining to leadership and conflicts of interest. Moreover, the training aims to raise awareness among stakeholders regarding diverse financing mechanisms, procedures for accessing climate finance from multiple sources, and engaging in carbon markets and other related markets.

These collaborations and strategic initiatives are aimed at fostering sustainable change and allow for the implementation of proper plans to assist with ensuring the climate-resilient future of the Member States.

The programme will focus on building sustainable capacity and increasing access to affordable finance. The specific objectives of the programme are:

• To increase access to and scale of climate finance by Caribbean states, using a programmatic approach where possible; To assist in building capacity to overcome structural constraints in selected countries;
• To identify and prioritise climate actions that can be developed into bankable projects/programmes for the mobilisation of climate finance for select CARICOM member states;
• To explore and deploy innovative climate financing instruments, where appropriate, to increase scale;
• To contribute to filling information and data gaps on climate finance in CARICOM member states;
• To coordinate with funding partners to simplify the requirements for accessing financing.