After Hurricane Melissa devastated Jamaica this week on its way across the Caribbean, expert analysis suggests the island nation is in line for hundreds of millions of dollars in payouts from innovative forms of insurance policies like catastrophe bonds to help it recover.
Jamaica’s finance minister Fayval Williams said in June that the country had disaster financing coverage worth 130.6 billion Jamaican dollars (US$820 million). The country has insurance with the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF) and a $150-million catastrophe bond, which experts say is likely to pay out in full.
Finance and climate researchers praised the Jamaican government’s foresight in arranging cover, which is likely to bring much-needed and relatively fast funds to help the country cope and rebuild. Sara Ahmed, advisor to the Climate Vulnerable Forum, commended Jamaica for “its leadership in deploying a mix of risk financing tools as climate change intensifies tropical storms and hurricanes”.
The executive director of the UN’s Green Climate Fund (GCF) Mafalda Duarte told Climate Home News on Thursday that, while the GCF currently has limited involvement in insurance, it is exploring more such investments. “A lot more needs to be done in this area,” she said.
But, while praising Jamaica’s government, other climate and finance analysts warned that the scale of the payouts is unlikely to come close to covering the losses from the hurricane and argued it is an injustice that small-island taxpayers who contributed little to the climate crisis are the ones who pay the insurance premiums – which are now likely to rise after this week’s disaster.
