Caribbean Small Island Developing States Perspective on Climate Financing Needs in Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry

The objective of this paper is to explore the potential of climate finance to support Caribbean Small Island Developing States (SIDS) efforts in achieving their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) in the Land use, Land use change and Forestry (LULUCF) sector. The methodology adopted was a content analysis of Caribbean countries’ NDCs, and two case studies of climate financing in two high forest low deforestation countries – Guyana and Suriname. The data used for the content analysis were obtained from initial and updated NDCs for 16 Caribbean SIDS, which were supplemented by country development plans, reports, and policy documents that address the issue of climate finance in LULUCF for the case studies. The findings show that Caribbean SIDS set ambitious mitigation and adaptation goals for their LULUCF sector but are heavily dependent on international climate finance which is not sufficient to achieve their LULUCF NDCs. Also, there is an absence of innovative domestic private and public sector financing and reform of fiscal incentives and international climate finance to achieve these goals.