‘Stop the talk, fix the system’ — Jagdeo urges Caribbean to ditch climate rhetoric for real action

Mar 27, 2026 News

---

Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo has issued a blunt warning to Caribbean leaders: abandon rigid climate posturing and “fancy speeches,” or risk remaining stuck in a cycle of talk with little real progress. Speaking at a high-level regional meeting in Georgetown on Thursday, Jagdeo challenged policymakers to fundamentally rethink how the region approaches climate change, arguing that global realities including ongoing geopolitical conflicts have exposed just how dependent the world still is on fossil fuels.  “In spite of all the advances, we’re still so reliant on fossil fuel,” he said, pointing to rising costs and economic shocks triggered by tensions involving major global powers. Against this backdrop, Jagdeo called for a pragmatic reset of the climate debate— one that moves beyond the simplistic “fossil fuels versus renewables” narrative.

The forum was the 124th Special Meeting of the COTED Environment and Sustainable Development meeting in Georgetown. “We need to reframe that debate for us to make progress,” Jagdeo said, urging leaders to move beyond what he described as a binary framing of fossil fuels versus renewables. Instead, he called for a more pragmatic approach that treats net-zero emissions as a balance of multiple solutions.

He warned that without such a shift, Caribbean representatives risk repeating the same arguments at global forums such as the Conference of the Parties (COP) without advancing outcomes. “There’ll be a temptation to give all these very lofty speeches,” he said, stating, “But your quest has to be a search for solutions.” of the COTED Environment and Sustainable Development held at the Pegasus Hotel.

FOUR AREAS OF ACTION

The vice president outlined four areas he said should guide a more practical regional strategy — beginning with energy. “The first is, he said, dictated out of necessity,” adding, “When you look at …the cost of energy for this region, many of us are using more than 10% of gross domestic product to import fuel energy.”

Jagdeo, an economist by profession, contrasted that with larger economies that spend a smaller share of their output on energy, recalling that Caribbean countries once spent the equivalent of 25 per cent of GDP on fuel. “How could you really craft a development policy in the medium long term with that leakage… it’s impossible,” he said, positing that even if we don’t have a climate challenge, it is a problem that must be addressed.

Second area of action, he emphasised, is the Caribbean’s extreme vulnerability to disasters, citing data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). “Since 1950, a total of 511 disasters have hit small developing countries… and of those, 324 were in our region,” he said.  Such events, he noted, can erase decades of economic progress overnight. “How could you accumulate wealth and build up social and economic infrastructure when overnight it could disappear,” Jagdeo said, pointing to the need for concrete planning to climate-proof infrastructure. “So whether there was a climate crisis or not, we need to foolproof our region against disasters.” The third area of priority, he said, is biodiversity. “We’re losing corals. We’re using a lot of the biodiversity which would have a societal impact.”

According to VP Jagdeo, even climate skeptics, particularly in the United States, are likely to support environmental conservation efforts. As such, he argued, framing policies around biodiversity could broaden political support. Jagdeo called for reforms to global climate finance systems to ensure faster and larger flows of funding to vulnerable countries.

“And the fourth, let’s reform the institutions to get the money flowing faster,” he said, urging leaders to move beyond rhetoric.  The vice president said, “You can pay attention and go through these fancy speeches and stuff, but be deliberate. The deliberate action on the part of countries’ ownership leads to success.” Jagdeo also voiced frustration with the pace and complexity of international climate financing, including mechanisms such as the Green Climate Fund. “We’ve been waiting for climate funds, etc., forever,” he said. “It seems as though, if we don’t break this cycle, then you’re going to get tired, as I am now.” He pointed to Guyana’s own efforts, including raising nearly $1 billion through forest carbon credits, as evidence that countries can act independently when global systems fall short.

ACT DELIBERATELY

Throughout his presentation, Jagdeo returned to a consistent theme – urgency paired with realism. Global conditions, he argued, are unlikely to change quickly, particularly with major emitters playing a reduced role in climate negotiations, and Caribbean nations must adapt their strategies accordingly. His appeal, especially to younger policymakers, was to focus less on rhetoric and more on implementation. “If we don’t break this cycle,” he said, “you’re going to get tired… listening to the same thing over and over again.” The vice president stressed that the path forward is clear – rethink the debate, act deliberately and pursue solutions grounded in reality.

Also delivering remarks at the forum Secretary General, Dr. Carla Barnett said the Caribbean Community  is advancing coordinated regional actions on climate finance, ocean governance and biodiversity protection. Dr. Barnett, said the meeting, 26-27 March, marks an important point in the Community’s efforts to strengthen its preparedness and engagement ahead of major global environmental engagements, including the 31st Conference of the Parties (COP31) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Seventeenth Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP17). Dr. Barnett said the five-day programme being executed this week is focused on reinforcing regional coherence, initiating work on the CARICOM Climate Finance Action Plan (2026–2030) and operationalising the Technical and Scientific Cooperation Centre (TSCC) under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. She noted that the development of the Climate Finance Plan is intended to ensure CARICOM Member States are better positioned in global discussions on climate funding and are able to secure transparent and accessible financing to support national and regional resilience efforts. (DPI)

---

• Bharrat Jagdeo, CARICOM, climate change, Dr. Carla Barnett, Secretary-General

---