World Bank Study Paints Damning Picture For A&B’s Coastline Amid Climate Change Projections

• If sea level rise over the next 29 years goes unmitigated, Antigua and Barbuda’s coastline could be unrecognisable, causing a major blow to the country’s bread and butter industry – tourism, coastal settlements and other coastal developments, according to a recent report. 
• The report titled ‘360° Resilience: A Guide to Prepare the Caribbean for a New Generation of Shocks’ explained that the region has a history of dealing with major shocks from both economic and natural hazards, adding that the region’s specialisation in tourism and commodity exports disproportionately exposes islands to economic cycles due to changes in demand in the tourism industry and commodity prices. 
• “In the absence of adaptation, by 2050, countries like Trinidad and Tobago, Antigua and Barbuda, St Lucia, and the Bahamas will see a large proportion of hotels unable to profit from proximity to a sandy beach,” the report said. 
• The World Bank report explained that erosion to the sandy beaches that many countries in the region like Antigua and Barbuda are renowned for, “directly affects” the tourism sector’s profitability, adding that “even under a moderate CO2 emissions pathway, 13 percent of nearshore hotels will experience beach loss resulting in a 17 percent decrease in tourism revenue for the region by 2050”.

(Source: World Bank)