In October 2023, the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) published the climate scenarios for the Netherlands in relation to climate change.

Climate change refers to the long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns. While such shifts can be natural, caused by the sun’s activity or large volcanic eruptions, since the 1800s, human activities have been the main driver of climate change, caused primarily by the burning of fossil fuels.

For the first time, the Caribbean Netherlands has been included in the KNMI report. The climate scenarios for the islands of Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba show that we have a relatively high chance of experiencing the negative consequences of climate change, such as sea level rise, stronger hurricanes, rising temperatures, extended drought, extreme rainfall and degradation and loss of vulnerable coral reefs.

Iris Keizer and Nadia Bloemendaal, who are climate scientists from the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute will visit Saba. The purpose of their visit is to share their knowledge on climate change and to meet with various stakeholders whose lives or work are affected by climate change or extreme weather events. For this, the Public Entity Saba will host a town hall on climate change. The public is invited to attend the town hall to gain knowledge on this broad topic which impacts all of Saba’s residents in one way or another and for the public to share with KNMI their experiences with climate change. The information KNMI gathers from the town hall and other stakeholder meetings during their time on the island will be used to tailor their climate research to our local (island) needs.

GIS