Thoughts on Climate Financing, Postcolonialism, and Climate Adaptation in the Eastern Caribbean Region

Abstract

Postcolonial institutional arrangements, which politically situate several non-sovereign climate-vulnerable countries in the Global North, may be affecting the extent to which these countries are able to respond to climate threats—such as coastal erosion, sea-level rise, water resource management, and more. This piece highlights the issue by specifically examining France’s postcolonial footprint in the eastern Caribbean while also presenting an example of a climate resiliency measure implemented by the Kingdom of the Netherlands in an overseas Caribbean jurisdiction. In presenting this analysis, the overall objective is to ultimately minimize the exclusion of non-sovereign nations from existing and emerging supranational mechanisms for climate adaptation financing that they might otherwise be eligible for, if it were not for their longstanding status as postcolonial overseas territories of a European nation.