Summary
Climate change is well understood and embraced by the official authorities, and most local stakeholders who have first-hand experience with its catastrophic impacts. It is likely to become very expensive for Haiti and an obstacle for its economic development if the adequate policies are not formulated at the national level. Severely crippled by poverty and natural disasters, we recommend that Haiti continue pursuing policies to adapt to the challenges posed by climate change without overlooking the mitigation portion of the equation. There is every reason to believe that investments in this direction will, in the long run, be complementary and mutually beneficial to the economic development. We also consider that Haiti has a big potential to become a leader within the Caribbean Basin to promote the climate change agenda of these states at the international negotiations level.
Understanding vulnerability
The Republic of Haiti is a Small Island Developing State, one of the poorest countries in the world and extremely vulnerable to the effects of climate change despite the fact it has one of the lowest emission rates, accounting only for 0.03% of global CO2 emissions.
Haiti lies directly in the in path of a hurricane path and a geological fault zone, which increases its exposure to extreme weather events. Haiti is the 4th most vulnerable country to hurricanes and 96% of the population is exposed to at least two different natural hazards. Cholera and tropical diseases epidemics occur during these events worsening the situation and most of the population does not have access to modern sanitation facilities including drinking water and sewage.
Unexpected challenges make it very difficult for your government to envisage long-term programs when short-term emergencies occur more often than not. In recent years, the impacts of different natural disasters have brought to light the need to strengthen the capacity national authorities in their response to emergencies and disaster relief. Other problems such as severe deforestation (forest coverage is only 4% of the surface of the country compared to 41% in the Dominican Republic), soil degradation (6,000 hectares are lost to the ocean due to soil degradation every year) and strong demographic pressures on fragile environments exacerbate the vulnerability to the impacts of climate change.
The meager physical and institutional infrastructures make it very difficult for the state to cope with the challenges that climate change poses while at the same trying to boost an economy that is in decline since the 1980s. It has very little capacity to collect any revenues to operate on its own and thus, relies on international assistance to keep the machine running. Nonetheless, we see there is strong political will and understanding of the impacts that a an increase in global temperatures can have on the country.
Haiti’s commitment to climate change
It is accurate to say that Haiti has a genuine commitment to act fast to halt climate change because its catastrophic impacts are experienced on a regular basis. Under the UNFCCC, your country has unconditionally pledged to reduce GHG emissions by 5% compared to a BAU scenario and further reduce emissions by another 26%, conditional on international financial assistance.
In this sense, the overarching goals of Haiti in regard to climate change are to improve resilience to climate change, respond to the losses and damages caused by extreme weather events and contribute to the effort to limit global temperature increase below 2 C. The financial needs in order to reach these goals are estimated at $25.387 billion, divided between mitigation ($8.773b) and adaptation ($16.614 b) policies. For context, GDP was $8.4b in 2017, $766 per capita.
How to respond to the threat of climate change?
In the first National Adaptation Plan from 2006 sectors such as agriculture, water and waste management and integrated coast management were prioritized. However, after experiencing two catastrophic events: the 2010 earthquake in which more than 235,000 people died and costed 120% of GDP that year; and hurricane Matthew in 2016 which asserted Haiti’s vulnerability to extreme weather events, the target sectors have changed. In the most recent NAP from 2017 new priorities were set: (1) governance, information, education and research, (2) strengthening socio-economic capacities through the promotion of income-generating activities to create resilience and empower women, (3) water resources and watersheds management; (4) strengthening food security through an economy that is not dependent on fossil fuels (5) integrated management of coastal areas and fisheries; (6) conservation and sustainable development of natural resources; (7) construction and rehabilitation of infrastructures adapted to current and projected climate change impacts; (8) integrated waste management with the goal of creating economic opportunities for communities and finally (9) the promotion of renewable energies as alternatives to charcoal to limit pressure on wood resources and reduce erosion .
The criteria that was taken into account to formulate these policies incorporate cost effectiveness, political feasibility, distributional equality, poverty alleviation, sustainable development, macroeconomic stability, alignment with other policies and simplicity and inclusiveness in implementation.
In this new adaptation plan we can clearly see the transition from a Climate change adaptation (CCA) framework that defines the impacts of anthropogenic climate change as the problem to be solved and which sees vulnerability resulting specifically from climate change stimuli that are considered as supplementary to, and out of the range of, natural variability. to a Vulnerability-centered adaptation (VCA) which defines the collective problem as not being caused solely by climate variability or change, but by a range of social, environmental, and economic factors that limit the present capacity to adapt to external stressors .
Policies
Since 2006 when the Haitian government started prioritizing climate change, several policies have been implemented at the national level to improve adaptation and resilience to its impacts. The projects have been carried out exclusively in synergy with different international actors. UNDP, the European Union, Global Environmental Fund, FAO, and national cooperation agencies from the US, Germany, Norway, Canada, France and Spain are some of the most notable partners. These initiatives have focused on strengthening the adaptive capacity of coastal communities, capacity building projects to Implement the Rio Conventions, ecosystem approach to Resilience in the southern regions. Nevertheless, a majority of the funds and political will has been directed towards agricultural programs and risk management and disaster response.
Finally, we find there is a deep and intentional void in mitigation initiatives. Although mitigation costs were calculated in the submission to the UNFCCC, explicit policies have been neglected when it comes to policy formulation and implementation.
Recommendations for a more comprehensive alignment of policies with overarching goals
1. Capacity building and governance.
In order for any of these policies to be successful the institutional infrastructure of your country needs to be strengthened. There are important issues such as human capital levels of the bureaucracy, corruption and state capture that need to be resolved before international partners are willing to commit additional funds and technical assistance. Moreover, there is an institutional problem, as several state institutions as well as autonomous organizations and non-governmental organizations are involved in the policy-making process without effective coordination of their actions and a clear definition of the roles and responsibilities of each. Not only will it be necessary to formulate a coherent framework of interventions but also to reach a consensus among the different entities.
2. Better integration of adaptation and mitigation policies in the institutional framework.
Although Haiti emits a negligible amount of GHG and the pursuit of mitigation policies is not a national priority, we believe that mitigation policies should be part of the policy toolbox as the country works toward economic development and institutional autonomy. As proposed by Ayers and Huq in their 2007 paper, mitigation and adaptation policies are linked and both have the ultimate goal of reducing the impacts of climate change in our human and natural systems. Wood fuels constitute nearly 80% of Haiti’s primary energy supply and we believe that more should be done to reduce emissions related to its use since it has direct effects on the LUCF sector an indirect effect on human health. To do so, we suggest that the government works with international and national stakeholders to bring renewable electricity, mostly solar given the lowering costs of the technology, to Port-au-Prince, Gonaïves and Le Cap Haïtien, where along with the deployment of a reliable electric grid will have the biggest impact at a lower marginal cost.
3. REED+ and CDM opportunities for additional financing.
We also consider that there is extraordinary potential in the reforestation and wetland management sector to implement mitigations policies that will help Haiti reach its objectives. The country experiences dangerous rates of deforestation and desertification that threaten further economic development and constitute and obstacle for emissions reduction. The current forest policies are not implemented with the purpose of resisting climate change and public funds are directed to the growing of species suitable for the production of charcoal. There are no initiatives, coercive actions, or sanctions to prevent the clearing of forests. In this perspective, Haiti should escalate the development of further projects in this sector. It would allow it to gain access to funds from the REDD+ initiative and also work with developed countries to initiate the exchange of certified emission reductions under the Clean Development Mechanism.
4. Zoning regulations.
Implementing strict zoning regulations and enforcing such policies for the purpose of protecting fragile ecosystems in the coast, forests and wetlands would constitute the capstone for mitigation and adaptation policies. Besides, it would generate numerous co-benefits including the protection of biodiversity, restoration of fisheries and agricultural returns.
5. Agriculture.
Although Haiti is a net food importer, agriculture remains the most important productive sector in the economy. It accounts for almost a quarter of GDP, provides about 50 percent of total employment and plays a crucial role in contributing to food security, economic recovery and social stability . Our recommendation for this sector is to provide credit lines for low carbon agriculture and sustainable forestry, construction of rudimentary irrigation for water and moisture retention in the soil, climate monitoring and forecasting coupled with education campaigns to improve social behavior.
6. Empower local stakeholders taking into account the needs and requirements imposed by international donors
7. Finally, it is imperative that the government you lead strives to maintain a peaceful and inclusive political atmosphere so the it is possible to continue with the positive trajectory the country is on since the last few years. We have seen that political feuds and lack of cooperation between the elites only generates negative effects: economic stagnation, halting of foreign direct investments, frustration among international donors and dissatisfaction within the populace that leads to public unrest.