Port-au-Prince, September 1, 2025.- What if Haiti finally decides to take a decisive turn in the fight against climate disruption? What if, from 1 September, the country devoted a national day to climate, awareness, environmental education and concrete action? Such an initiative would not be an empty symbol, but a strong political act, in keeping with the environmental challenges to which our nation is cruelly exposed.
Why a National Day?
Because climate change is not an abstract problem for world powers. They are a daily reality for Haiti, aggravating food insecurity, destroying our infrastructure, displacing our populations, impoverishing our soil, threatening our biodiversity, and killing hundreds of people every year. More frequent and intense cyclones, repeated floods, prolonged droughts, water insecurity, coastal erosion, loss of agricultural land... The list is long, and it's still growing.
Haiti is among the most vulnerable countries in the world to climate change, but paradoxically, it is also one of the least prepared countries. Climate education is almost non-existent in schools, public policies remain timid, and collective consciousness struggles to structure itself around a common commitment.
Causes? They are multiple
Massive deforestation, poor waste management, anarchic urbanization, degradation of watersheds, lack of sustainable agricultural policies. But it would be simplistic to bring responsibility to the people. The failure of the State in terms of land-use planning and environmental regulation is blatant.
The consequences?
Our children will live them. Water scarcity, declining agricultural productivity, the explosion of environmental diseases, climate migration, conflicts over access to natural resources... Haiti is running straight towards a major ecological crisis, which will worsen all its socio-economic fragility.
So why on September 1st?
Choosing a fixed date to reflect and act on climate issues each year is a way to anchor the topic in the national agenda. On 1 September, on the eve of the school year, could be a day of general mobilization in schools, universities, town halls, ministries, the media, in order to make ecology a pillar of the national future. It is a strategic date to insert climate into educational programmes, launch reforestation campaigns, organize conferences, publish reports, and above all remember that the survival of Haiti depends on its environmental adaptation.
This day would also allow citizens to reconnect to their territory, to value local knowledge, to recognize the work of ecologists, agronomists, engineers, researchers, often ignored despite their vital contribution. It would also be an opportunity to denounce international responsibilities, as Haiti is experiencing the effects of global warming that it has not caused.
Declaring September 1 as National Climate Day is not a cosmetic gesture. It is a vibrant call for collective responsibility, a way of integrating ecological struggle into national identity. For Haiti, to be reborn, can no longer continue to turn its back on nature. It must make it a strategic and citizen alliance, a top priority in its social, economic and political reconstruction.
September 1 could become an annual anchor for national awareness, for active ecological memory, for sustainable engagement.
Earth won't wait. Haiti cannot wait anymore.
Q.A.
