Cuba’s political will to apply programs that deal with global warming despite the attacks of the US blockade maintained for more than 60 years, was praised today by a specialized source.
An article published in the international marine science magazine Seven Seas and signed by Helen Yaffe, shows how the Cuban approach to climate adaptation offers an alternative to the world’s dominant paradigms based on the private sector.
According to the author, the island achieves this thanks to four fundamental pillars, such as a centrally planned economy dominated by the State that helps the government to mobilize resources and direct the national strategy without encouraging private profits, unlike other countries dependent on market solutions.
Second, cites the source, the Life Task (national program for adaptation to climate change) is based on Cuba’s leading world record of anticipation and response to risks and natural disasters.
All of which is frequently demonstrated in its reaction to hurricanes and, since March 2020, in relation to the Covid-19 pandemic, he considers.
In his opinion, a third element lies in the organizational and mobilizing capacity of the Civil Defense system, established after the devastating hurricane Flora of 1963 and, the fourth, in the effectiveness of the Antillean country to collect and analyze local data.
Despite the fact that the Donald Trump administration (2017-2021) severely tightened US measures against Cuba, further obstructing its access to resources and finances, and the pandemic hit the economy even more through the loss of income from tourism, in There have been tangible achievements in environmental matters, Yaffe points out.
In that period, he details, 11 percent of the most vulnerable coastal homes were relocated, coral farms were established, 380 square kilometers of mangroves were recovered, serving as a natural coastal defense; and one billion pesos were invested in the country’s hydraulic program.
The Cuban approach to climate adaptation and mitigation, he believes, is of increasing relevance to the SIDS (Small Island Developing States) of the Caribbean that depend on tourism and other countries of the Global South, which are emerging from the Covid-19 pandemic with levels of indebtedness that will obstruct future access to international financing.
The island’s praxis of “using environmental science, natural solutions, and community engagement can provide examples of best practice for those who do want to tackle climate disaster,” he concludes.
