UN Climate Chief Calls For Urgent Action After Hurricane Devastates Grandmother’s Home

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The head of the UN’s climate change convention has called on governments around the world to take urgent action to tackle global warming after his grandmother’s home on the Caribbean island of Carriacou was “totally destroyed” by Hurricane Beryl, the earliest category five storm on record in the Atlantic.

Speaking from Carriacou, Simon Stiell said what he and his community were experiencing was the same “devastation that has become all too familiar to hundreds of millions of people around the world”. 

He said initial reports indicated that 98 per cent of homes and buildings on the Grenadine island had been destroyed or severely damaged by the hurricane, which made landfall on July 1 before sweeping through the Cayman Islands, Mexico’s Yucatán peninsula and reaching Texas last week.

“Tragically, this upheaval of lives and livelihoods from Beryl is not unique. It is the growing cost of unchecked climate carnage, in every country on Earth,” said Stiell.

“If governments everywhere don’t step up, every economy and 8bn people will be facing this blunt force trauma head on, on a continuous basis.”

Previously environment minister for Grenada, Stiell took on the role as executive secretary of the UN’s climate change arm in 2022.

Advocates had argued his political experience and knowledge of the issues faced by small islands that are vulnerable to climate change could help drive greater action from countries at UN climate negotiations. But he has faced constant bickering and pushback from big greenhouse gas emitters among G20 countries.

“The G20 are responsible for 80 per cent of greenhouse gas pollution,” Stiell said. “They must lead the way with game-changing new national climate plans — due early next year — which deliver on the promise every country made last year to transition away from all fossil fuels.”

Initial reports indicated that 98% of homes and buildings on Carriacou had been destroyed or severely damaged by hurricane Beryl © Teddy Frederick/Grenada Film Company

He warned that countries were facing “endless debt cycles” as they borrowed to rebuild only to face another “climate-inflicted disaster”, diverting resources from education and health in the process.

“These climate driven disasters don’t just cripple lives and communities when they hit.  They inflict huge ongoing costs the world over,” he added, citing a report that found failing to tackle climate change would be far more costly than the roll out of measures to halt temperature rises.

“Beryl is yet more painful proof: every year, fossil-fuel driven climate costs are an economic wrecking ball hitting billions of households and small businesses.”

Sea temperatures have been at a record high for each of the past 15 months, with the warmer oceans fuelling hurricanes, generating increased rates of rainfall and higher wind speeds as a consequence.

Forecasters have warned of a more severe Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June to November, with most activity usually taking place from mid-August to mid-October.

In May, the US’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said there was an 85 per cent higher chance of an above average hurricane season in the Atlantic this year, attributed to a “confluence of factors” including climate change and a shift to the naturally occurring La Niña phenomenon which is also linked to a surge in storm activity.

During the video address, Stiell can be seen standing in the ruins of a building, which he said was his neighbour’s sitting room. “My own grandmother’s house down the street was totally destroyed.”

While several people were killed by the hurricane in Grenada, Stiell’s family were all safe despite the damage to their property.

“What the climate crisis did to my grandmother’s house must not become humanity’s new normal. We can still prevent that, but only if people everywhere speak up, and demand bolder climate actions now, before it’s too late,” he said.