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This profile documents the projected climate impacts in the Eastern and Southern Caribbean (ESC) region, which extends to 11 countries: Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago. The high vulnerability to, and potential for, climate impacts throughout the region often drive direct integration of climate risk management into the country and regional planning processes. For most Caribbean countries, tourism is the largest industry, though Guyana’s, Suriname’s and Trinidad and Tobago’s tourism amounts to less than 5 percent of total exports. 

The profile shows that the region is largely expected to suffer from a 0.86°C-1.50°C (about 1.5°F-2.7 °F) increase in mean temperatures by 2050, an increase in hurricane intensity, including stronger winds by 2-11% and more precipitation, as well as rising sea levels and increased incidence of storm surge. Key climate impacts include damaged coastal infrastructure and decreased access to services, shifting infectious disease burden, increasing heat stress, lack of access to health services, decreased water quantity and quality, damage to water infrastructure, degraded coastal ecosystems, damaged tourism infrastructure and increasing difficulty in delivering tourism services, habitat degradation and loss, changing fish migration patterns, and crop losses or failures. The anticipated climate impacts in the region gives emphasis to regional plans and strategies have been developed to enhance cooperation and advance resilience to climate change.