As cli­mate change in­ten­si­fies storms, flood­ing, droughts and coastal ero­sion across the Caribbean, re­gion­al lead­ers are call­ing for a fun­da­men­tal shift in how coun­tries pre­pare for dis­as­ters, from re­act­ing to crises to build­ing re­silience be­fore they oc­cur.

That call echoed through­out the open­ing day of the Dis­as­ter Risk Man­age­ment Con­fer­ence 2026 (TTDRM2026) at the Hy­att Re­gency, Port of Spain, where pol­i­cy­mak­ers, emer­gency man­agers, de­vel­op­ment agen­cies and pri­vate-sec­tor lead­ers gath­ered to ex­plore how Caribbean na­tions can bet­ter with­stand and re­cov­er from grow­ing cli­mate and dis­as­ter risks.

Held un­der the theme “Re­silience 360: Bridg­ing Knowl­edge and Ac­tion,” the three-day con­fer­ence, which con­cludes on Wednes­day, is ex­am­in­ing a range of is­sues in­clud­ing re­silient in­fra­struc­ture, cli­mate adap­ta­tion, dis­as­ter risk fi­nanc­ing, ear­ly warn­ing sys­tems, busi­ness con­ti­nu­ity, com­mu­ni­ty pre­pared­ness and the role of tech­nol­o­gy in strength­en­ing na­tion­al re­silience.