ANTIGUA & BARBUDA (Commonwealth Union)_The climate issue is a trillion-dollar concern, and the most impacted countries – primarily developing countries and small island governments – are footing the cost. As COP27 negotiators struggle over climate financing for adaptation, mitigation, and loss and damage, some countries are searching for other ways to ensure they have enough funding to live in a warmer environment.
The Antigua and Barbuda government signed a Memorandum of Understanding with NOAH ReGen at COP27 in Egypt to establish the financial infrastructure required for the country to fund its green transition sustainably.
NOAH, also known as the Network of Ocean Ambassadors Headquarters, is an international organisation that provides ocean governments with tools for valuing their natural resources, unlocking new sources of income (such as carbon credits), recruiting private money, and tracking blended financing projects.
Antigua and Barbuda, like Trinidad and Tobago, is a twin-island nation on the frontlines of climate change. The almost 100,000 inhabitants of the islands live primarily on the coast and lack the means to protect themselves from rising waters and increasingly frequent catastrophic weather occurrences. Following the passage of Hurricane Irma in 2017, Barbuda was rendered nearly uninhabitable.
With obligations for loss and damage remaining meagre in comparison to the need on the ground, Antigua and Barbuda aspires to be a pioneer by utilising its ecological treasure and freeing revenues from the carbon market. NOAH ReGen will provide the blueprint for this ambition, as well as the technology infrastructure and multidisciplinary talent required to build it.
While small islands await reimbursement from international organisations for loss and damage, Prime Minister Gaston Browne of the Caribbean islands said: It is time for us to discover and create possible revenue lines that can be earned from carbon reduction and offset credit initiatives. We anticipate that our work with NOAH ReGen will help us manage our financial issues in order to endure climate change.”
NOAH ReGen CEO and founder Frédéric Degret told Guardian Media in an exclusive interview that through their Blue Carbon Lab, satellite imagery, and machine learning to process data, they can determine how much carbon is being sequestered in the ocean, unlocking vast carbon credits for small island states like Antigua and Barbuda. He stated that the monies produced in carbon markets can be used to de-risk private equity and public finance, as well as fund due diligence and technical help. Once the NOAH Proof of Concept initiative for Antigua and Barbuda is done, the model can be readily expanded out to the rest of the SIDS, whose combined Exclusive Economic Zone accounts for more than 25% of the total global marine exclusive economic zone.
