Albrecht Dürer, Justice, ca. 1499. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, public domain.
Yesterday in Georgetown, Guyana, CARICOM Secretary-General Dr. Carla Barnett opened the 124th Special Meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development on Environment and Sustainable Development. The agenda covered the CARICOM Climate Finance Action Plan for 2026 to 2030, a common regional position ahead of COP31, and setting up the Technical and Scientific Cooperation Centre under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
CARICOM countries produce a fraction of one percent of global greenhouse gas emissions and carry some of the heaviest climate losses per head of any region. The money to adapt exists in global climate funds. Getting it to Caribbean projects is largely a paperwork and staffing problem, and that is the kind of problem AI tools handle well.
Why small islands get less climate finance than they qualify for
The Green Climate Fund, the Adaptation Fund, the Global Environment Facility, bilateral donors and private investors together move hundreds of billions of dollars a year, and Small Island Developing States are meant to be priority recipients. In practice they receive a small share. Four causes come up again and again:
- Long, technical applications. A Green Climate Fund proposal can run to hundreds of pages of project design, financial models, environmental and social safeguards and consultation records. A ministry unit of five people cannot spare the months it takes.
- Reporting that does not scale down. Progress reports, audits and impact assessments cost roughly the same effort for a $2 million project in Dominica as for a $200 million project in India.
- Too many funds to track. Each mechanism has its own eligibility rules, templates and deadlines.
- Income classification. Several Caribbean countries are classed as upper-middle or high income on GDP per head, which shuts them out of some concessional finance despite their exposure to hurricanes and sea level rise.
Four jobs AI can take off a climate finance unit
| Job | What AI does | What a person must still do |
|---|---|---|
| Drafting applications | Fills standard sections (institutional capacity, financial management, safeguards) from past submissions and reshapes project text to each fund's criteria | Supply the project data, check every figure, sign off |
| Watching for funding windows | Monitors fund websites and bulletins, filters by eligibility, and sends deadline alerts | Decide which calls are worth the effort |
| Compliance reporting | Turns project and accounting data into each funder's report template and keeps audit documents filed as the project runs | Confirm results on the ground |
| Completeness checks | Reviews a draft against the fund's checklist and flags missing annexes or inconsistent numbers | Fix the gaps |
The risk is invented content. A model asked to "complete the stakeholder consultation section" will write one whether or not the consultation happened. Every factual claim in an AI-drafted proposal has to trace back to a real record, and funders can suspend or cancel projects where the documentation turns out to be wrong.
Regional coordination is where shared tools pay most
Fifteen member states applying separately repeat each other's work. A shared CARICOM system could show which countries have applied to which funds, flag chances for joint or co-financed proposals, and let one country adapt another's successful application instead of starting from a blank page.
Biodiversity reporting under Kunming-Montreal
The Technical and Scientific Cooperation Centre will support reporting under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. That reporting draws on the same thin environmental agencies. AI tools can help in four places:
- Measuring mangrove extent, reef condition and forest loss from satellite imagery.
- Putting species survey data into the formats the framework requires.
- Drafting national biodiversity reports from monitoring data already collected.
- Keeping agencies, universities and international partners working from the same data.
Preparing for COP31
Small island states carry moral weight in climate talks and have the smallest delegations. One CARICOM position carries more than fifteen slightly different ones. AI tools can help a small team keep up:
- Comparing negotiation drafts and flagging wording changes that affect small island interests.
- Tracking other delegations' positions through their public statements and nationally determined contributions.
- Writing short briefings that turn technical texts into talking points for negotiators.
- Keeping a record of pledges made by developed countries at earlier COPs, so delivery can be checked.
What I would build for CARICOM
The Action Plan runs to 2030, which leaves four years and four hurricane seasons, with sea level rise, coral bleaching and the economic disruption Vice President Jagdeo warned about at the same meeting. My proposal has four parts:
- A shared climate finance toolkit, hosted by the CARICOM Secretariat and open to every national climate change focal point, for funding searches, drafting and reporting.
- A library of successful applications from member states, which the toolkit can draw on for the next similar project.
- A year-round UNFCCC monitor that produces a weekly briefing for CARICOM negotiators.
- Local builders. Commission Caribbean AI firms that understand the region's institutions and have lived through its storms.
The cost of such a toolkit is small next to a single approved proposal. What I cannot tell you is how the major funds will treat applications drafted with AI. None of the ones I follow has published a clear position, and a regional toolkit should be built to show a reviewer exactly which parts a person wrote and checked.
"The money to protect the Caribbean from climate change exists globally. The capacity to access it does not exist locally. AI tools can help close that gap with the staff we already have." - Adrian Dunkley, AI Boss
What to do next
- National climate change focal points, this quarter: list every fund your country is eligible for, with the next deadline for each, and set up automated alerts for new calls.
- Heads of climate finance units: pick one upcoming proposal and use an AI assistant to draft only the standard sections, then time how many staff hours it saved against your last proposal.
- The CARICOM Secretariat: start the shared application library by asking each member state for its last three approved climate finance proposals, with sensitive annexes removed.
- Every unit using AI for proposals: adopt a written rule that each figure and claim must cite a source document on file, and keep a log of which sections were AI-assisted.
- Environment ministries: ask a regional university or AI firm to run a pilot that maps mangrove extent from free satellite imagery for one coastline, as a first input to Kunming-Montreal reporting.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a Caribbean ministry apply to the Green Climate Fund directly?
Only through an accredited entity. Proposals go to the fund through organisations it has accredited, either international bodies or regional and national ones. In the Caribbean, the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre and the Caribbean Development Bank are accredited, so they are the usual first call for a government without its own accreditation.
Is there funding to help prepare a climate finance proposal?
Yes. The Green Climate Fund's Readiness and Preparatory Support Programme pays for capacity building and project preparation through each country's National Designated Authority. Many Caribbean countries have not used their full readiness allocation. Ask your National Designated Authority what remains and whether it can cover proposal preparation or a data system.
What is the difference between the Green Climate Fund and the Adaptation Fund?
Both finance climate projects, but they are separate funds with separate rules. The Adaptation Fund finances only adaptation, often in smaller grants, and has long supported direct access by nationally accredited entities. The Green Climate Fund finances both mitigation and adaptation and handles much larger projects. Match the size and type of your project to the fund before drafting.
Is it safe to put draft proposals into a public AI chatbot?
Check first. Draft proposals can contain unpublished government data, community names and financial details. Use an enterprise AI service with a contract that stops your data being used for training, or remove sensitive details before pasting, and follow any government ICT policy on external cloud tools.
What was discussed at the COTED Georgetown meeting?
The 124th Special Meeting of COTED on Environment and Sustainable Development, held on March 26 in Georgetown, Guyana, covered the CARICOM Climate Finance Action Plan, regional coordination for COP31 and CBD COP17, and setting up the Technical and Scientific Cooperation Centre under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.