Jamaica

Jamaica is the third largest island in the Caribbean Sea. It is approximately 145 kilometres south of the island of Cuba. Jamaica has several rugged mountain ranges, with the highest point, the Blue Mountain Peak, soaring over 2,256 metres (7,402 feet). The coastline is approximately 1,022 kilometres. The climate of Jamaica is mainly tropical with the most important climatic influences being the Northeast Trade Winds and the island’s orographic features (mainly the central ridge of mountains and hills).

Jamaica is a Small Island Developing State (SIDS) that is vulnerable to climate change impacts especially along the coastal areas and affecting livelihood activities. This is because of its geographical location, biophysical landscape, and its high dependence on natural resources. Jamaica has experienced several storms and hurricanes in the past decade with severe flooding damage, loss of lives, and destruction of goods and services to the amount of $ 129 billion USD. The impacts of increasing climatic events such as tropical hurricanes and associated peaks of strong winds have profound consequences on agricultural production, food security, and local livelihoods.

Jamaica became a Party to the UNFCCC on the 6th April, 1995, to the Kyoto Protocol on the 16th February 1999 and ratified the Paris Agreement on the 11th April, 2017. The Climate Change Division (CCD) in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation is the national focal point to the Convention and Protocol. Jamaica has implemented several projects relating to mitigation and adapting to climate change since becoming a Party to the Convention. Having ratified the Paris Agreement in 2017, Jamaica is seeking to align current and planned initiatives with its second (2^nd) Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), which seeks to “mitigate the equivalent of 1.8 million to 2.0 metric tons of carbon dioxide by 2030 versus the business-as-usual scenario”.

Jamaica remains committed to making its contribution as the world moves to address the challenge of climate change. It has broadened its sectoral scope and taken steps to move towards an economy-wide target and will bring emissions from the land use change and forestry sector within its NDC for the first time.

This reflects the importance of the forestry sector to Jamaica, which accounts for more than half of the island’s total land use, and the important commitments that the country has made to preserve and enhance these stocks.  The country has identified opportunities to deepen the emission reductions it delivers in the energy sector. These opportunities are part of an increasingly comprehensive approach to decarbonising this sector that covers both the electricity generation, as well as energy use sub-sectors. The result of these positive changes is that Jamaica’s latest NDC will be significantly more ambitious. By 2030, it foresees emission reductions covering these two sectors of between 25.4 per cent (unconditional) and 28.5 per cent (conditional) relative to a business-as-usual scenario (which considers policies in place as of 2005). This implies that emissions in these sectors would be 1.8 to 2.0 MtCO2e lower than they otherwise be, compared with a range of 1.1 to 1.5 MtCO2e in its previous NDC.

Adaptation represents an important cross-cutting element for all sectors. Within the energy and land-use sectors, the policies in place to reduce emissions will also provide adaptation co-benefits to Jamaica and therefore enhance the country’s resilience.

• Waste and sanitation management: Incineration of municipal solid waste technologies, capture of landfill gas, production of biodiesel from cooking oil and plant-based sources, co‐generation using bagasse, production of biogas using animal wastes and use of wastewater sludge.
• Renewable energy and energy efficiency infrastructure projects.
• Increasing technical capacity and funding to sustain and expand ecosystem and wildlife habitat restoration programmes.
• Conducting vulnerability assessments and modelling projected loss and damage, to inter alia, evaluate feasibility of restoration and conservation interventions in various coastal areas.
• Technical and financial support to build capacity and ongoing education of fisherfolk and coastal community members to increase their involvement in mangrove and coral reef protection.
• Funding for the implementation phase of the REDD+ initiative. Technical assistance, financing, and technological development to support the inclusion of underrepresented groups (youth, women etc.) associated with gathering climate data for citizen science.
• Support in capacity development towards involvement in carbon markets.
• Financing and technical support to expand the role of technology in monitoring post disaster response, environmental management, and enforcement.
• Public private partnerships
• Identification, design and development of impact and bankable infrastructure projects

• Provision of database and information for the country’s SCF profile (08 March 2022).
• Participation in regional SCF webinars