Efforts to tackle climate change in the territory may soon be eligible for long-delayed funding from a pot that has grown to almost $6 million.
After sitting empty for a decade, the Virgin Islands Climate Change Trust Fund will be operationalised this year and launched internationally in November at the United Nations Climate Change Conference, government promised this month.
The move should bring an initial influx of about $5.6 million to the independent body, finally filling its coffers with eight years’ worth of tourist taxes that were earmarked for the purpose but never handed over.
The May 2 announcement, which was buried in a government press release about a regional environmental meeting, could signal the end of years of delays by four administrations.
Eco-levy funds tied up
The trust fund was the first of its kind in the region when it was established in 2015 with the passage of the VI Climate Change Trust Fund Act.
Board members were first appointed in July of 2017, the same year the government began collecting a $10 levy from most non-cruise-ship visitors under the 2017 Environmental Protection and Tourism Improvement Fund Act.
The act requires this money to be used to combat climate change, protect the environment, and boost the tourist industry, and 40 percent of the take is earmarked for the CCTF.
But the funds collected from the eco-levy — which today amount to nearly $14 million in total — have never been disbursed.
That will change soon, according to the Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources and Climate Change.
“The trust fund board is currently working on submitting its application for disbursement of its share of the fund as required by [new] regulations,” according to a statement provided to the Beacon on May 7 on behalf of ministry Permanent Secretary Ronald Smith-Berkeley. “Funds should be disbursed within 30 days of an application being received.”
Revoked and reappointed
If that happens as planned, it would end a decade of government delays and broken promises.
Shortly after the CCTF board members were appointed in 2017, they got to work with the help of donations from their own pockets.
But in the wake of the 2019 general election, the board’s membership was suddenly revoked by then-premier Andrew Fahie — a move the 2022 Commission of Inquiry report later found to be unlawful.
Mr. Fahie’s successor, Premier Natalio “Sowande” Wheatley, reappointed the board in June 2023, but the fund was still empty.
The following February, Mr. Wheatley said the money collected from tourists could not be disbursed because the eco-levy law had never been properly brought into force.
The House of Assembly soon passed a new bill to validate it, but even this legislative update was not sufficient: The premier said last June that regulations were also needed to operationalise the eco-levy law.
Several more months of delays followed, but the new regulations were finally Gazetted March 6.
CCTF update
Then, this month, the government provided an update on the CCTF near the end of a May 2 press release about Deputy Premier Julian Fraser’s trip to an April 29 meeting of environment ministers from the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States.
During a panel discussion on sustainable financing, the release stated, Mr. Fraser described the CCTF as a model for financing the climate-change response in United Kingdom overseas territories.
The release also noted that OECS Commission Director General Didacus Jules congratulated the VI on “establishing the Climate Change Trust Fund as a novel approach to the longstanding issue of limited access to funding” by the UK overseas territories.
“The fund will be operationalised this year and internationally launched at the 30th Conference of Parties (COP30) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in November,” the release added.
OTs’ struggles
Also at the meeting, Mr. Fraser — who is the minister of environment, natural resources and climate change — explained that overseas territories like the VI are unable to access traditional climate financing available to independent states in the region.
“There is no access to structural funds to build resilient infrastructure, facilities and communities and to climate-proof our economies or to support our transition to renewable energy and a low-carbon economy,” he claimed.
As examples, he said overseas territories are ineligible to access the Global Environment Facility, the Adaptation Fund, the Green Climate Fund and the new Loss and Damage Fund.
“This is fundamentally because the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change does not recognise the special and distinguished case of the overseas territories,” he said.
Meanwhile, he added, the adverse effects of climate change in the VI are wide-ranging: stronger hurricanes, more frequent and severe flood events, heat waves, mass sargassum landings and sea-level rise. These pressures, he said, affect communities, infrastructure and the tourism and financial services sectors.
OECS meeting
The press release also gave other updates on Mr. Fraser’s attendance at the meeting, which was the 12th annual meeting of the OECS Council of Ministers: Environmental Sustainability held in Antigua and Barbuda.
As outgoing chair of the council, Mr. Fraser thanked members for their work on the COMES Roadmap to 2030, which charts the OECS regional agenda and priorities for environmental sustainability to the end of the decade, according to government.
Mr. Fraser also welcomed incoming chair Sir Molwyn Joseph, the minister of health, wellness and environment in Antigua and Barbuda.
Other topics discussed at COMES:12 included ocean governance, waste management, plastic pollution, sustainable energy and biodiversity, according to government.
Mr. Fraser was accompanied by acting Deputy Secretary Tessa Smith Claxton and Private Secretary Gloria Mactavious.
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