Hurricanes that hit the Caribbean this year were like nothing seen before, with Hurricane Irma so strong it was picked up by seismic machines that detect earthquake tremors, officials said. National plans to curb planet-warming emissions, drawn up ahead of the Paris Agreement, currently add up to a projected temperature rise of 3 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by 2100 — well above the 1 degree Celsius rise already seen. That may bring climate impacts that are impossible for small island nations to deal with, their leaders warned Tuesday at the U.N. climate talks in Bonn.
Sanjogeeta Kiran, right, with her sister Sulva Kiran, second left, and her children Shivendera, left, and Raajeen, sit amid the debris of their home in RakiRaki, Fiji, Feb. 24, 2016, after Cyclone Winston ripped through the island nation.
If ambition to curb climate remains modest, "have we created a situation for small island developing states where resilience may not necessarily be ... achievable?" asked Janine Felson, Belize ambassador to the United Nations and vice chair of the Alliance of Small Island States. This year, Hurricane Maria destroyed broad swaths of homes and infrastructure on the Caribbean island of Dominica and stripped its trees bare. Barbuda island was left temporarily uninhabitable when Irma whipped through the region. "In the Caribbean we're used to hurricanes, but ... for the first time we've seen storms turbocharge and supersize in a matter of hours," she said, speaking on the sidelines of the climate talks.
A traditionally dressed Fijian warrior with a weapon poses for a picture in front of a Fijian double-hulled sailing canoe during the COP23 U.N. Climate Change Conference 2017, hosted by Fiji but held in Bonn, at World Conference Center Bonn, Germany
The storms' impact was "quite apocalyptic," and magnified the acute vulnerability of small island states, Felson said. Even so, countries — who are now clear on the risks — can take steps to protect themselves by building structures better able to weather storms, and ensuring policies take into account the rapidly changing climate, she said. "If we do not know the extent of our vulnerability, then we will not change," Felson said.
Bouncing back