Perched on the edge of a hill in the idyllic village of Cold Spring in Hanover, Jamaica, the Gurney’s Mount Baptist church has stood for centuries as a symbol of resistance and endurance. The church and its congregation have endured through uprisings – in particular the famous 1831 slave revolt led by the Black Baptist deacon Samuel Sharpe – and earthquakes.
But when Hurricane Melissa descended on Jamaica, it ripped off the church roof and shredded the rows of sturdy pews, leaving an unrecognisable mangle of wood and debris in its wake. Outside, parts of the structure had survived the onslaught of the category 5 storm. The church is one of Jamaica’s 146,000 buildings – just 15% of those assessed so far – that has suffered major to severe damage, according to Alvin Gayle, director general of Jamaica’s emergency management office. The death toll on Thursday was 45, with 13 people missing; an estimated 90,000 households and 360,000 people have been affected by the damage.
The names of past members are still etched into its walls and the “freedom stone”, built into its structure to commemorate the end of slavery on 1 August 1838, is still there.
As church and faith groups play a significant role in Jamaica’s recovery, the loss of the building and parts of the adjacentschool are a huge blow to the community, Rev O’Neil Bowen told the Guardian.
Cold Spring village, and many of its neighbouring communities in Hanover, where residents are still coming to terms with catastrophic destruction, were once plantations owned by Europeans who amassed wealth from centuries of trafficking and enslavement of African people. One of the Guardian’s 19th-century funders co-owned a plantation, Success, in the area. For the last few years, the Legacies of Enslavement Programme has been engaging with these communities to discuss priorities for repair.
At the ongoing UN Cop30 climate change conference in Brazil, campaigners say that devastated regions such as Hanover as well as others across Jamaica, Cuba and Haiti, are stark examples of how African descendants are disproportionately affected by centuries of environmental degradation.
Speaking from Cop30, Jamaican economist Mariama Williams said historical injustices must be confronted and addressed.
“The research shows that wherever Afro descendants are located, they are most vulnerable to climate and environmental impact and have been suffering from historical environmental injustice and climate injustice,” she said. “Climate justice cannot be separated from reparatory justice. The same systems that enriched the north created today’s vulnerabilities.”
The Global Afrodescendant Climate Justice Collaborative, where Williams is a senior adviser, is among hundreds of human rights groups and environmentalists that urged Cop30 to put reparations on the agenda.
In their open letter they argue that “global warming began with the Industrial Revolutions that were made possible by the resources provided by imperialism, colonialism and enslavement, [and] that colonialism and enslavement skewed the global economy in favour of the material and financial interests in the global north”.
Describing the efforts to recover from Hurricane Melissa as a “real-time case study” that validated this argument, Williams said: “The storm hit rural Jamaica hardest – people who are poorest, least protected, and historically marginalised. The same communities shaped by slavery, colonial extraction, and racialised policies are now on the frontline of climate disaster. So we’re not in theory any more.”
The economist believes countries such as Jamaica should have remedies such as being able to identify and write off debts which they were forced into because of their colonial past.
Outlining the magnitude of the challenge facing Jamaica, the prime minister, Andrew Holness, estimated the damage caused by Melissa to be about $6bn-$7bn (£4.6bn-£5.3bn) based on preliminary figures. Aid has been pouring into the country and the World Bank announced last week that the government of Jamaica would receive a full payout of $150m under its catastrophe insurance coverage.
But for environmental justice academic and associate professor Kevon Rhiney, though insurance payouts are important, Caribbean countries need more sustainable solutions in order to withstand the brunt of climate change they did not cause.
“Countries cannot just be expected to insure their risks because the fact that a single hurricane can wipe out an entire agricultural sector means that these bonds will not be enough to cover the full risk and the loss and damages that these countries will accrue.” he said.
Referring to the amount of money pledged to the UN-backed loss and damage fund to help vulnerable countries recover from climate change impacts such as extreme weather, as “embarrassingly low”, he called for a greater commitment from high-emitting countries.
“We’re not begging these countries. This is a debt that is owed. And I think this needs to be made clear. And this is why there is very deep connection between calls for climate reparations and reparations for slavery, because they’re both connected through these longer histories, these colonial legacies,” he said. The UK has pledged £7.5m.
Arley Gill, a member of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) Reparations Commission, set up to advance the region’s pursuit of reparatory justice, told the Guardian that “a successful Cop cannot avoid a discussion about climate change and reparations”.
“Hurricane Melissa once again showed us that the same islands and the same peoples that are … demanding reparative justice for the crimes against humanity of slavery, slave trade, and indigenous genocide, are the same peoples and the same countries that are on the wrong end of the effect of climate change. And so those two issues are inseparable.
“We call upon the global leaders, to once and for all to confront the harsh reality of that climate change is as a direct result of the impact of colonialism and industrial revolution which was fuelled by the crimes against humanity.” he said.
On Thursday, the UN permanent forum on people of African descent called for climate action rooted in human rights, and reparatory and racial justice.
“We must recognise that climate justice cannot succeed without addressing historical and structural forms of injustice and their lasting consequences.”
