By Danielle Swain in Belém, Brazildanielle@newsroom.gyThe math of climate change has long worked against small Caribbean countries. Rising seas, stronger storms and tightening debt have been matched with aid that is slow, conditional and often inadequate.On Friday in Belém, on the sidelines of COP30, a group of Caribbean policymakers, technocrats and advocates tried to flip that equation, not by pleading for more grants, but by demonstrating how they are building their own climate finance systems from the ground up. At the centre of the conversation was Guyana’s forest model, increasingly viewed as a reference point for the region.The panel, hosted by the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) and the Virgin Islands Climate Change Trust Fund, brought together representatives from Guyana, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados and the British Virgin Islands to showcase “models of international best practice” emerging from Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and low-lying coastal nations.“We already know that the international climate finance architecture has not been very responsive to our vulnerabilities,” said Colin Young, executive director of the CCCCC. “Countries in the Caribbean are not sitting and waiting. They’re mobilising financing to invest in climate resilience, adaptation and mitigation.”Guyana’s forests as a financial assetPreeya Rampersaud, representing Guyana, opened with what she called “a little bit of Guyana’s story.”“Guyana has 18 million hectares of forest; 85 per cent of our territory is forested,” she said. “Most of this is intact, with around 15 per cent owned by Indigenous peoples. Ninety-nine per cent of our forest is still standing.”Preeya Rampersaud, Guyana’s Representative, shows how intact rainforests, robust MRV systems, and long-term political vision are helping turn ecosystem services into predictable climate finance.(Danny Moonie/OECS)Those forests store an estimated 19.5 gigatons of carbon dioxide and remove roughly 154 million tonnes of CO2 each year, a “global asset” that anchors Guyana’s forest carbon programme.Rampersaud traced the evolution of that programme from the pioneering 2009 agreement with Norway to today’s entry into the voluntary carbon market. Over 15 years, Guyana has expanded from REDD+ credits into new ecosystem services, biodiversity, freshwater and eventually blue carbon, while channelling revenues into both community projects and national low-carbon infrastructure.The underlying ambition, she said, is to keep the forest standing while using the proceeds to restructure the wider economy around clean energy, resilience and green jobs.Forests, coasts and shared learning across the CaribbeanRampersaud also stressed that the model is adaptable beyond Guyana’s vast forests.“It’s not just about large forest areas. It really is about how we can safeguard all forest areas,” she said.She pointed to emerging work on mangroves and possible blue carbon assets, arguing that Caribbean neighbours with extensive marine space, including Belize and several island states, can tailor the approach to their own geographies.“We see knowledge sharing and learning as part of our work,” she said. “That’s one of the benefits of how we work in the Caribbean… a South–South kind of learning, where we learn from each other.”Antigua and Barbuda: Why the Caribbean must stop trying to behave like “triple-A” countriesAntigua and Barbuda’s experience, laid out by Diann Black-Layne, Director of the Department of Environment and former climate ambassador, offered one of the session’s sharpest critiques; Caribbean states are still being pressured to behave like the world’s most advanced financial jurisdictions and it is holding them back.Diann Black-Layne, Director of the Department of Environment in Antigua and Barbuda, delivers a striking call for the Caribbean to “stop behaving like triple-A’s” (Danny Moonie/OECS)She described the Sustainable Island Resource Framework (SIRF) Fund, established in 2019 and accredited to both the Green Climate Fund and the Adaptation Fund, as a breakthrough. But she stressed that the very process of gaining accreditation reveals the system’s deeper flaws.Small states believe they have to deliver “triple-A”-style financial management, no mistakes, full risk aversion, and heavy documentation. That culture has seeped into regional ministries and public institutions.“We are structuring our finances based on risk models that are not unique to us,” she said. “The reason it’s so hard to get access to financing is because we’re still using the World Bank’s and Inter-American Development Banks’s model, not one that reflects our own realities.”The consequences are stark – Caribbean technocrats are trained to avoid risk entirely, leaving states ill-equipped to engage with the 80 per cent of the global capital market where most climate finance actually sits.“We don’t know how to engage with them,” Black-Layne said. “We have no way of speaking their language.”And yet, Antigua and Barbuda has built a project portfolio nearing US$90 million, from solarised schools and churches to electric vehicle charging networks, by pairing accreditation with pragmatic, sometimes unorthodox problem-solving. During COVID-19, the government rewired a loan programme by directly procuring equipment, cutting costs by “80 per cent” and expanding the number of families served.Her message was clear: the Caribbean must stop structuring its finances around external expectations. “We have to change our mindset about money,” she said. “About going to the market to get the money.”BVI and Barbados, new levies and whole-of-island resilienceFormer Deputy Premier Dr Kedrick Pickering outlined how the British Virgin Islands is capitalising its Climate Change Trust Fund through an environmental levy on visitors and residents. The next challenge, he said, is creating the legal and administrative structures to accept philanthropic and private-sector donations at scale.Dr. Kedrick Pickering, former Deputy Premier of the British Virgin Islands, shares how the BVI is capitalising its new Climate Change Trust Fund (Danny Moonie/OECS)“There is a willingness to give more,” he said. “But the problem is having the structure to accept donations when they are made available.”Barbados, represented by Ricardo Marshall of the Roofs to Reefs Programme, offered a different approach: a whole-of-island model linking household-level resilience, hurricane-ready roofs, water tanks, with coastal protection and marine conservation.A regional push for homegrown financial rulesAcross the panel, a common frustration emerged. Caribbean states are still navigating a climate finance architecture they did not design.Black-Layne warned that as long as regional economies model their financial systems on institutions like the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank, they will continue to be locked out of the markets where most climate capital now moves.Rampersaud added that Guyana’s model demonstrates what is possible when states turn ecosystem services, forests, rivers, mangroves, into revenue streams that fund real development; resilient agriculture, sea defences, and community-driven projects.“Adaptation is critical for us,” she said, noting that 90 per cent of Guyana’s population lives on its low-lying coast. “We’re looking to transition our energy footprint, build climate-resilient agriculture and manage droughts and floods, while keeping one of the world’s most intact forests standing.”As the session closed, the message was less about waiting on global reform and more about rewriting the rules at home using examples such as Guyana’s forest credits to Antigua’s direct-access fund and the BVI’s levy system.“We’re not just telling a story,” Rampersaud said. “We’re sharing challenges, lessons and how we can learn from other countries as well. Within that framework, we learn from each other.”The post Caribbean states build their own climate finance systems, and look to Guyana’s forest model appeared first on News Room Guyana.