An International Climate Injuries Compensation Fund to provide compensation for damage and harm resulting from extraordinary weather events – that proposal has been put forward by Justice Winston Anderson, President of the Caribbean Court of Justice.
The initiative was presented by President Anderson while speaking at the Inter-American Seminar on Climate Emergency and Human Rights held in Brazil.
President Anderson believes more is required at a practical level to ensure small vulnerable countries in the Caribbean and elsewhere receive urgent assistance to recover from destruction caused by extraordinary weather events.
While he acknowledged the existence of the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage, he expressed disappointment with the lack of urgency in securing capitalisation of the FRLD.
The FRLD was established by the Conference of Parties to the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.
President Anderson referred to Jamaica, which is actively engaging the FRLD, but may only receive US$20M despite suffering some US$6-7B in damages with the passage of Hurricane Melissa.
The proposed ICIC Fund outlines that multinational corporations and businesses which contribute to greenhouse gas emissions above a certain threshold would be required to make mandatory contributions.
The Fund would also have legal personality and could be sued in the country where the extraordinary weather event caused significant harm or damage.
President Anderson suggested that the Fund be established by a global convention, modelled on the International Maritime Organisation’s International Oil Pollution Compensation (IOPC) Funds, which provide compensation for oil pollution damage at sea, and is backed by ship-owners of oil vessels.
The CCJ President first advocated the establishment of the ICIC Fund during his Keynote address at the CANARI Partners Forum held in January 2026 in Barbados.
