Building Resilience to Climate Change Is Imperative for Belize’s Future

The IMF’s statement also emphasized the urgent need for Belize to address the growing threat of climate change. The country is highly vulnerable to climate-related shocks, including natural disasters such as hurricanes and rising sea levels. The report urges the government to invest in measures to enhance climate resilience, such as infrastructure upgrades, disaster preparedness, and early warning systems. CEO in the Ministry of Economic Development, Dr. Osmond Martinez, highlights the challenges Belize faces in an effort to keep up with the global demand to become a more climate resilient country.

Dr.Osmond Martinez, CEO, Ministry of Economic Development: “Climate change has a mega appetite to the point that it’s swallowing not only the coastal areas and not only creating issues in the Blue Economy which is the marine life but it’s also swallowing the agro productive sector. Infrastructure has become a huge issue now because all the infrastructure development has to be done under a climate resilience system but it also has been swallowing, the mega appetite of climate change has swallowed the limited resources within the government where almost an average of 4% of our GDP is being loss due to the impacts of climate change.”