BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – The Inter-American Dialogue (IAD) says if the United States hopes to be viewed by the Caribbean as a partner in the region’s development, and to maintain strong political ties to regional governments in the process, then, like the Caribbean’s other primary partners, Washington will need to continue engaging on issues of top concern to the Caribbean.
In a 25-page report released at the end of July that reviewed China’s climate assistance in the Caribbean, the authors note that with absent US involvement, China will be viewed ever more definitively “as a partner of choice on climate, energy transition, and wide-ranging other top priority objectives”.
The Report titled “ A Review of Chinese Climate Assistance in the Caribbean” is a product of the IAD’s Asia & Latin America Programme, with the authors being Margaret Myers, a senior advisor to the Asia and Latin America Programme, Yifang Wang, a programme associate for the Asia and Latin America Programme and Aleem Mahabir, a research fellow at the Jamaica-based Caribbean Policy Research Institute (CAPRI).
The Report notes that Caribbean countries have been active in promoting innovative solutions to climate and debt problems, such as the US$165 million climate-for-debt swap that Barbados negotiated in December 2024. Still, the region’s financial needs are only rising.
According to the International Monetary Fund’s(IMF) calculations, the Caribbean region will require approximately US$100 billion in adaptation investment and finance in the coming years, equal to about one-third of its annual economic output.
In addition to much-needed water and sewerage, agricultural, transport infrastructure, and other upgrades, there is considerable demand for investment in lower-cost and lower-carbon energy production.
The Report states that with all of this in mind, the region is unsurprisingly at the forefront of global calls for climate action and partnership, noting also that the Caribbean countries have developed a relatively robust institutional framework for climate action, including the Belize-based Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC), the Barbados-based Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) and the Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology (CIMH), among others.
The Report notes that China’s presence is also growing at a steady pace, both in economic terms and on climate and other issues of interest to the region, such as disaster relief, energy transition, and food security, as part of its stated commitment to partnership with the Global South.
“As traditional partners recalibrate their foreign assistance strategies, China’s growing involvement in climate and development initiatives across the Caribbean reflects broader shifts in the geopolitical and financial landscape of international climate cooperation.
“Amid likely debate on future U.S. assistance to the Caribbean, and efforts to leverage other partnerships in support of urgent needs, Caribbean decision-makers will benefit from a clear understanding of the extent and nature of climate assistance by Chinese and other partners— especially amid regional efforts to evaluate, coordinate, and leverage this assistance within the region’s existing policy frameworks and institutional landscape,” the report notes.
The Report examines China’s direct climate cooperation with the Caribbean from 2013 to 2023 and, looking ahead, concludes that climate assistance in its various forms, and from wide-ranging partners, will be mostly welcomed by the Caribbean region.
“So, for that matter, will investments and exports that are seen as advancing energy transition and food security, which are critical components of a comprehensive climate and resilience strategy.
“However, at this juncture, none of the Caribbean’s partners has been fully committed to providing the region all that it needs to tackle the climate crisis, even preceding US efforts to cut foreign assistance. The levels of finance needed to achieve the Caribbean’s immense adaptation goals remain elusive.”
The authors of the Report wrote that despite its relative lack of strategy in the delivery of climate assistance to the region, “China will remain a much sought-after partner for Caribbean countries.
“Still, careful and collaborative review of the nature of Chinese engagement and the policies governing it, beginning with efforts, of the sort undertaken here, to quantify and characterize Chinese assistance, but including even deeper analysis, would do much to align Chinese assistance with critical regional needs, while also ensuring that Chinese platforms and pledges are fully leveraged.”
The Report notes that to better leverage the growing scope of Chinese climate assistance, Caribbean governments and regional institutions would benefit from more explicitly situating this support within the region’s established environmental and climate resilience policy architecture.
It states that CARICOM’s updated Regional Policy Frameworks for Environment and Natural Resources and Climate Resilience, which outlines the region’s strategic priorities for environmental stewardship, adaptation, and mitigation, offers clear benchmarks to guide the integration and assessment of external support, including Chinese assistance.
It said that aligning new projects with these frameworks can help ensure that cooperation with external partners advances locally defined resilience goals.
Additionally, the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) plays a key role in coordinating regional positions on climate change and ensuring policy coherence across CARICOM member states.
The Report states that engaging COTED in the review and alignment of climate-related partnerships, including with China, would support more coordinated and transparent implementation and help avoid fragmentation across the regional landscape.
It said regional institutions such as CDEMA, the CIMH, and the CCCCC also offer important platforms for amplifying the value of external partnerships.
“The CCCCC already provides policy and technical guidance, executes donor-funded climate projects, and strengthens institutional capacity across member states. Structured collaboration with these climate-focused regional bodies would help ensure that external assistance is embedded within existing institutional frameworks, leverages local expertise, and contributes meaningfully to long-term capacity building and resilience outcomes.
Enhancing institutional capabilities through targeted capacity-building should become a more prominent aspect of Chinese climate assistance to the Caribbean.
“The CCCCC, given its extensive experience in regional climate policy development, project execution, and institutional strengthening, offers considerable scope for deeper collaboration. Structured partnerships with the CCCCC and related institutions would provide China with valuable local insights, facilitate greater project sustainability, and ensure lasting positive impacts from its assistance efforts,” according to the Report.
There would also seem to be much room for more climate-focused capacity-building activity at the institutional level, of the sort that China carries out in other ministries, though often in pursuit of Chinese commercial or political objectives.
“The combination of severe climate impacts and limited resources has required Caribbean nations to maximize their assets to respond to climate shocks of the sort that all nations will increasingly face. China and other partner nations would be wise to incorporate elements of Caribbean expertise into their climate planning,” the Report added.
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