Collateral damage

Caribbean people are saddened at the death and destruction in Jamaica, Cuba, and Haiti from hurricane Melissa. It is one of the strongest hurricanes to hit the region, and certainly the strongest ever to make landfall in Jamaica. The heart wrenching stories and images show what is at stake. The deep injustice is laid bare as these vulnerable small island states shoulder the burden of a global climate crisis to which they have contributed so little. Hurricanes are made more intense from global warming due to pollution from ecosystem destruction, resource extraction and burning, particularly of coal, oil, and gas by major developed nations. The effort and cost to rebuild and recover will also fall on these islands, and challenging financing mechanisms will be involved. The futures and livelihoods of these countries, and the Caribbean region overall, depend on redesigning many systems and developing resilient infrastructure to withstand repeated climate-related disasters.

Ironically, hurricane Melissa forms the backdrop to the approaching tenth anniversary of the 2015 Paris Agreement, which includes the collective aspiration to keep global temperatures no greater than 1.5-degree Celsius above the pre-industrial average to avoid the worst effects of global heating. Just a week before hurricane Melissa, the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, announced on 22 October that exceeding the temperature threshold appeared inevitable. This came ahead of next month’s UN Climate Change Conference, COP30, as he warned that current national pledges were not sufficient to avoid further consequences of global warming. The number of years to exceed the 1.5-degree threshold depends on whether countries take the ambitious action that is desperately needed.

Adding to this mix is the March 2025 withdrawal of the United States (US) from the global agreement where developed nations responsible for historical emissions would compensate low-income countries for loss and damage from global warming. The US has been the largest historical polluter, including on a per person basis, and remains a major emitter today.

The through line linking the context of historical emissions to present day circumstances is the obsession with profit and growth, as poorer countries act as collateral to progress.

Here in the UK, we are not exempt: while emissions reductions have been delivered, the UK is not on track to meet its 2030 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), that is its pledges for reducing emissions to deliver the global collective ambition to keep temperature increases below 1.5 degree Celsius as per the Paris Agreement. In its June 2025 progress report, the UK Committee on Climate Change (CCC) reported to Parliament that the UK’s pace of reductions will need to increase to meet its NDC commitments and longer-term targets, flagging that transport and aviation are key to achieving this. 2030 is year by which the UK intends to meet its NDC commitments.

Deeply lacking in imagination and courage, the Labour government progressed its efforts to flog the dead horse that is building a third runway at London’s Heathrow Airport. Singing the old tune of jobs and growth, the government launched on 22 October a review process (into the Airports National Policy Statement that will result in a framework for future Heathrow expansion. Four key tests were identified for assessing proposals: climate change, noise, air quality, and economic growth. The. Cognitive. Dissonance.

Added to Labour’s list is its go-ahead to expand London’s Gatwick airport and approval for the Lower Thames Crossing, a £9 billion road tunnel to link Essex and Kent. These major infrastructure projects are carbon intensive and will support future polluting activity in sectors that the data show and the CCC has flagged are already problematic.

London is no different: the Mayor’s many successes on transport emissions, including the Ultra Low Emission Zone, are rightly championed, but they are not compatible with the £2.2 billion Silvertown road tunnel in one of London’s poorest boroughs with the largest Black, Asian and other minority ethnic community, that is, Newham, which has had the worst air quality in the UK. The Mayor’s delivery plans for cleaning London’s air published in July 2025 confirm no significant action to reduce transport emissions will occur in his third term.

As wealthy countries like the UK wheel out rhetoric expressing sadness about the loss and damage amidst hurricane Melissa, this is the reality. Policy actions that fail to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will continue to have consequences. Decisions made that allow damaging emissions from human activity will shape the lived reality elsewhere. The pace of change matters and inaction today has a cost. Our lives are not fodder for economic growth.