Climate Change In Bermuda

Download the Report in PDF Format

'The Impact of Climate Change on Bermuda', is a report written by Dr. Anne Glasspool that examines the effect of climate change on Bermuda. It also suggests how Bermuda can develop strategies to protect it from the resulting threats to the country's social, economic, physical and environmental wellbeing. The report, which was tabled in the House of Assembly February 5th, 2010, following a ministerial statement by Dr. the Hon. Ewart F. Brown, JP, MP, Premier of Bermuda and Minister of Tourism and Transport, suggests that Bermuda can set an example for small islands by mitigating the processes of climate change. The Premier issued a take note motion on the report for subsequent debate by Members of Parliament.

The 200-page report, produced by the Bermuda National Trust with the support of Aspen Insurance Holdings Limited, substantiates that climate change is as much a threat to Bermuda as to the rest of the world. In particular, the report considers the economic, social and physical vulnerability of small islands and how they relate to Bermuda. It also considers the significant effect of climate change on global food security and two of the island's most important sectors of the economy, international business and tourism.

Highlights of the report include a study of sea level rise in Bermuda, which threatens the island's infrastructure through increased flooding during high tides - up to 14 percent of total land area. Rising temperatures, heavier rainfall, more intense storm activity and longer periods of drought also threaten the island's buildings, transport, waste and sewage, water supply, telecommunications, electricity and other essential services, the ecosystem and even individual human health and livelihoods.