The Caribbean Tourism Association is calling on the world’s biggest polluting nations to help the region prepare for the onset of climate change and preserve its tourism economy.
Speaking at World Travel Market, chairman Dominic Fedee said: “I call on the industrialised nations to arrive at a common sense position on carbon emissions.
“There isn’t much we can do in the Caribbean to really move the needle and cause the environment situation to change, yet we are the biggest victims. We can’t be dealing with this, our economies are too small.”
Fedee said a third of Caribbean countries’ debts are built up by paying for rebuilding projects in the wake of natural disasters brought on my climate change.
“This remains the largest threat to tourism economies in the region,” he added. “We need to have a sensible approach to carbon emissions the world over.
“We are not big polluters. We are trying our best to be responsible and take a sustainable approach to our economies.”
He cited plastic bans in countries like Barbados, and said the Caribbean tourism industry was using “the best environmental practices in tourism developments”.
“But we can only do so much,” he added. “We need the help of the big polluters, the developed countries of the world.”