Blog

There are a lot of environmental challenges facing the world today. From plastic pollution to dwindling fossil fuels to climate change, these issues have been at the forefront of many headlines recently. With global activists like Greta Thurnburg and Vanessa Nakate calling the worlds attention to these challenges, it is important to recognize what is already possible while still striving for a radical reinvention of our planet. Each step towards a sustainable future requires an intricate mix of big ideas, dedicated dreamers, and actionable innovation.

Unless you’ve been living under a very tidy rock for the past two decades, you probably know that trash—whether it’s plastic bottles, straws, fishing lines, or hidden-yet-terrifying microplastics—are a huge problem for our planet. This trash (read: mostly plastic) pollutes our rivers, chokes marine life, and creates huge infrastructure challenges for developing economies that quite simply cannot handle all that waste.

To help build resilience against climate change, the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) launched the Caribbean Climate Smart Islands Program (CCSIP). This program aims to demonstrate ways of transitioning to a low carbon and climate resilient pathway in the pilot island of Caye Caulker (Belize) where a hydropanel was recently installed as a sustainable source of drinking water production.