00:04good evening ladies and gentlemen I am Nicole M Romany and welcome aboard your favorite airline
00:09get your passports ready tonight we leave Trinidad and Tobago for a journey across
00:15the Caribbean one island one story one people at a time for small island developing states
00:22climate change is not a distant warning it is a force that can wash away roads damage hospitals
00:28and erase decades of economic progress in a matter of hours but across the Caribbean the
00:34conversation is shifting from surviving the storm to building countries strong enough to withstand it
00:41picture this you spend decades building a country you build the roads you strengthen the economy you
00:49invest in hospitals homes and communities then one storm arrives and suddenly years of progress
00:57can disappear beneath flood water wind and debris for Antigua and Barbuda this is not a hypothetical
01:05future it is the reality of living on the front line of a changing climate and the question is no
01:12longer
01:12simply how do we recover it is how do we build so that the next storm does not take us
01:19back Minister
01:21for the environment Michael Joseph tells why the region this is what climate resilience must
01:26ultimately deliver so when we talk about climate resilience we're talking about the ability of a
01:33country to be able to bounce back after a climatic event whether it be an acute one or a chronic
01:40one or even just
01:41the ability to sustain itself throughout the climatic event what's needed roads that can withstand heavier
01:50flooding hospitals that can keep standing after a hurricane and economies that don't have to spend
01:56another 20 years rebuilding what decades to create but there's a problem the country's feeling some of the
02:04sharpest impacts of climate change are often among those contributing the least to the emissions driving
02:10it and for Antigua and Barbuda that imbalance has made climate finance one of the Caribbean's most urgent battles
02:18our countries in the small island developing states particularly in the Caribbean we contribute the
02:25least to the global climatic impacts we're seeing we're talking about the carbon production we're talking
02:32about greenhouse gases we contribute minimally to it yet our countries are the ones that are impacted
02:38most we're on the front lines with drought that have gone on for years we're on the front lines with
02:48hurricanes that we go through a six month period annually of potential impacts we're talking about heat
02:56strokes we're talking about sagas Sahara dust minister Joseph says what Antigua and Barbuda wants is not a
03:04rescue package at an AOSIS forum ahead of the United Nations climate change negotiations in Bonn Antigua and
03:12Barbuda's minister Joseph argued that the financing available to small island developing states has to reflect the
03:20reality they actually face what we're saying is that we want financing options that meet the need of our
03:27people so we're talking about low interest loans firstly if you're going to give us loan options we're talking
03:32about grants because the reality of it is to build out some of our infrastructure we cannot carry that burden
03:39of
03:39having to repay that over long period because then it constrains our economy to be doing more critical
03:45things that we need to do so we're talking about accessing to those type of mechanisms we're talking
03:50about grant funding because many of our countries do not qualify for direct assistance and as the Caribbean
03:58moves deeper into the hurricane season that message takes on a different urgency because when a hurricane
04:05forms in the Atlantic island nations do not simply watch the forecast they calculate who will it hit how
04:13hard and what will it cost to come back the minister says for Antigua and Barbuda the answer to that
04:20question
04:20is becoming increasingly tied to one word resilience we want global leaders to understand we're not out here
04:29asking for charity we're asking to be able to be self-sustaining we're asking to build our own
04:36resilience we're asking for accountability from countries that contribute significantly to greenhouse
04:42gases to help us to sustain ourselves sustain our livelihood and to protect our people in our economy
04:49that's all we're asking we're trying to move towards developing our own countries and not having to rely on
04:55international assistance for our development from Antigua and Barbuda to islands across the Caribbean
05:01the message is becoming harder to ignore for small islands developing states resilience is not an abstract
05:09climate term it is the road beneath your feet the economy that pays your bills and the future you refuse
05:17to surrender to the next storm as the sun sets on tonight's journey through Antigua and Barbuda
05:23thank you for flying with us on wider region uncovering the stories people culture and
05:29conversations shaping our region I am Nicole M Romany join us next Friday as we journey to another
05:36destination across the Caribbean until then safe travels
