Climate finance in the Caribbean region’s Small Island Developing States

Between 2010 and 2015, US$ 1,477 million in climate finance was committed to Caribbean SIDS, representing approximately 6% of total reported aid flows. The analysis reveals a heavy reliance on bilateral sources (85%), with a significant concentration of funds in a few countries and sectors. While 48% of finance targeted mitigation and 32% adaptation, the report highlights a critical gap in funding for resilience-essential sectors like health and education. Furthermore, a low regional disbursement ratio of 39% suggests significant implementation challenges compared to non-climate aid.

• A total of US$ 1,477 million in climate finance was committed to Caribbean SIDS between 2010 and 2015, which constitutes approximately 6% of the total reported aid flows to the region during that period.
• Climate finance distribution is highly concentrated; 52% of the total committed finance for the region came from just two funding relationships: Norway's grants to Guyana and France's loans to the Dominican Republic.
• The majority of climate finance (85%) originated from bilateral sources, while multilateral sources contributed 15%. Within the multilateral category, the World Bank's Climate Investment Funds (CIFs) were the most significant contributors.
• Funding is split between mitigation (48%), adaptation (32%), and projects targeting both (20%). Most countries received more for adaptation than mitigation, with the exceptions of Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Grenada, and Guyana.
• Climate finance is predominantly project-based (77%), with 20% delivered as contributions to special-purpose programs and funds, and only 1.3% provided as sector budget support.
• There is a significant misalignment between climate finance and long-term resilience needs; while 'general environment protection' received the most funding, critical sectors such as health and education received no climate finance, and agriculture received very little.
• Disbursement of climate finance is notably inefficient compared to other aid. Only 39% of committed climate finance was actually disbursed between 2010 and 2015, whereas non-climate aid flows had a disbursement ratio of 95%.
• Financial instruments vary by donor: 62% of regional climate finance was provided as grants and 38% as loans. France and the World Bank CIFs were the primary providers of concessional loans.

APA

Atteridge, A., Canales, N., & Savvidou, G. (2017). Climate finance in the Caribbean region’s Small Island Developing States. Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-WP-2017-climate-finance-caribbean.pdf

Chicago

Atteridge, Aaron, Nella Canales, and Georgia Savvidou. Climate finance in the Caribbean region’s Small Island Developing States. Stockholm Environment Institute, 2017. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-WP-2017-climate-finance-caribbean.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Atteridge |first1=Aaron |last2=Canales |first2=Nella |last3=Savvidou |first3=Georgia |title=Climate finance in the Caribbean region’s Small Island Developing States |publisher=Stockholm Environment Institute |date=September 2017 |url=https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-WP-2017-climate-finance-caribbean.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{atteridge2017climate, author = {Atteridge, Aaron and Canales, Nella and Savvidou, Georgia}, title = {{Climate finance in the Caribbean region’s Small Island Developing States}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2017}, month = sep, url = {https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-WP-2017-climate-finance-caribbean.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }