Partnerships for co-creation of knowledge and research
Empower cities to act, raise ambition, and scale implementation
Knowledge-sharing on a specific topic, method, and/or output
Capacity building in climate science data and analyses
Mr.
Caribbean Small Island Developing States (SIDS) present a unique governance paradox: in many, the capital city and the nation are virtually coterminous, collapsing the multi-level frameworks that conventional climate action relies upon. Yet their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) vary dramatically in urban specificity, from vague sectoral mentions to operationalized city-level targets.
This session presents findings from a systematic NDC analysis across Caribbean states using a five-level urban specificity taxonomy, revealing critical gaps between national climate commitments and urban implementability. It then introduces SURGE Caribbean as a co-production mechanism that bridges this gap by working directly with Caribbean cities to translate climate pledges into locally actionable strategies, even amid data scarcity, limited institutional capacity, and extreme climate vulnerability.
Through four complementary perspectives (analytical framework, national government, local practitioner, and regional academia), the session demonstrates how Caribbean SIDS are becoming laboratories for innovative climate governance.
Luis Ramirez
