PRIME Minister Philip “Brave” Davis warned that as many as 8.2 million people across the Greater Caribbean could be displaced by climate change by 2050, calling for greater adaptation financing to help vulnerable communities remain in their homelands.

Speaking at the Rising Nations Gala Dinner on Monday, Mr Davis said climate mobility represented the human consequences of a crisis confronting small island states and argued that countries should not be forced to depend on good fortune to escape increasingly severe climate threats.

“Our people do not want to leave,” Mr Davis said. “So, protect their right to stay, with adaptation finance that is larger, faster, and placed in the hands of communities themselves.”

He said those unable to relocate, including poor and rural communities and women, should not be left exposed, while people forced to move should be able to do so with their rights, dignity and culture protected.

Mr Davis framed the appeal against the backdrop of an unusually quiet Atlantic hurricane season so far, contrasting conditions in the region with destructive storms elsewhere.

“The hurricane season is not over and to date we have been spared,” Mr Davis said. “Others have not.”

He invoked Hurricane Dorian, which devastated Abaco and Grand Bahama in 2019, as an example of the vulnerability confronting small island states.

“That is life in a small island state,” Mr Davis said. “We do not decide whether our year is kind or cruel. We wait to learn whose turn it is.”

He argued that countries should not regard disasters elsewhere as somebody else’s problem, saying climate threats transcend national borders.

“No nation’s survival should depend on luck,” Mr Davis said. “And no nation should take comfort in a mercy that is paid for by someone else’s suffering.”

Mr Davis said geopolitical fragmentation and countries turning inward risk undermining the collective response required to confront climate change.

He called for international commitments on climate mobility to translate into practical support, particularly financing that reaches communities directly and helps people remain where they live.

Mr Davis also expressed support for the Rising Nations Institute and the Communities Climate Adaptation Facility, which focus on the challenges facing states threatened by climate change and displacement.

He pointed to Tuvalu as an example of a country confronting existential threats from rising seas, arguing that nationhood extends beyond physical territory.

“Tuvalu has taught the world that a nation is more than its coastline,” Mr Davis said. “It is its people, its memory, and its right to endure.”

Mr Davis closed by stressing solidarity between vulnerable island states in different regions.

“One day the Atlantic will wake again,” he said. “When it does, let it find a world that did not look away.”