Hurricane Melissa’s devastation vastly exceeded the island’s emergency financial mechanisms, leaving the country on the brink of a historic crisis as it seeks grants, not loans, at the COP30 summit.
Jamaica is facing a dire financial crisis following the passage of Hurricane Melissa, which struck the island on October 28 as a Category 5 storm, leaving approximately $10 billion in damages.
Only $500 million of that sum can be covered by funds accumulated over years to cope with climate disasters, according to statements by Matthew Samuda, a minister in the Jamaican cabinet. Facing this outlook, the island nation has turned to the COP30 climate summit in Belém, Brazil, urgently requesting grants, investments, and financing on favorable terms from the wealthier countries present at the event.
The reserves for disaster preparedness managed to cover barely 5% of the total cost provoked by Melissa. Samuda warned that Jamaica refuses to take on commercial loans, as these conditions could further burden the local economy, just as a future marked by heatwaves, droughts, rising sea levels, and catastrophic storms is predicted.
“We don’t come as beggars. We come as victims of the actions of others,” the minister declared in an interview at the summit, referring to the island’s negligible responsibility for greenhouse gas emissions.
The minister detailed that, after decades of improvements in financial health and efforts to approach an investment-grade credit rating, the country’s progress has been called into question by Melissa’s impacts.
“To have so much of that success wiped out in a single 24-hour period by a storm that was stronger, that lasted longer, that came at a time of year that is unusual, and brought more rain than usual because of the actions of others, is a bitter pill to swallow,” Samuda said.
Melissa hit outside the usual season, bringing storm surges of 17 feet (5.18 meters), sustained winds, and up to 30 inches (76.2 centimeters) of rain, which deepened landslides, flooding, and infrastructure destruction. The phenomenon severely affected the tourism and agriculture sectors, with 192,000 buildings damaged.
Samuda asserted that the hurricane should be reclassified as a Category 6 and described its impact as “seismic.” Scientific researchers concluded that climate change intensified the storm, making it 30% stronger and six times more likely at this time of year.
Samuda highlighted that the aftermath exceeded even the economic damage generated by the COVID-19 pandemic, when the island lost nearly 10% of its GDP. “The pandemic didn’t wash away bridges, didn’t destroy roads, didn’t disrupt water supply in the way that this particular incident has,” he noted.
Prior to Melissa’s arrival, Jamaica had strengthened its protection through catastrophe bonds issued by the World Bank, which disbursed $150 million, and parametric insurance that contributed another $90 million, in addition to its own strategies that raised the emergency fund to $500 million. Against the total cost, there remains a “gap of $9.5 billion,” Samuda specified.
Negotiations at COP30 seek to reinforce international financing destined for developing countries for adaptation and preparedness against extreme climate phenomena. The UN estimates that by 2035 at least $310 billion annually will be needed. For Ana Mulio Álvarez, a policy advisor at the think tank E3G, “COP30 cannot end without an ambitious outcome on adaptation.”
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