Keith Claudius Mitchell is Prime Minister of Grenada. This is his fourth term in office, having served from 1995-2008 and 2013-present. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own; view more opinion at CNN.

(CNN) Grenada and other Small Island Developing States are on the front line in the war against climate change. Although hurricanes are no stranger to the Caribbean, the overwhelming scientific evidence of how extreme weather conditions are worsening due to global warming shows that we need to take the signals that our Earth is sending us seriously. That evidence can be found in the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) 2018 special report on the effects of global warming above 1.5 degrees Celsius -- and in the devastation left by Hurricanes Irma and Maria in the region, in the form of mangled towns, villages, homes and critical infrastructure, wrecked lives, devastated crops and ecosystems, damaged economies and financial markets.

Keith Claudius Mitchell

As leaders of Small Island Developing States see the rising tides and feel the temperature changes, we will not play a waiting game, hoping major economies will come to our rescue.

During this year's UN Climate Summit in September, leaders from the Caribbean will be sure to present goals and ideas of how to tackle this crisis. The human cost across the region is too severe and life-changing not to.

Who can forget Dominica Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit's live updates as Hurricane Maria pounded his home in 2017? "My roof is gone. I am at the complete mercy of the hurricane. House is flooding," he posted on Facebook. Hurricane Maria is regarded as one of the worst natural disasters to hit our neighboring islands of the Caribbean.

According to a 2018 Swiss Re report , $92 billion -- nearly half of 2017's total insured cost -- was caused by hurricane damage in the US and the Caribbean. And a 2018 UN report detailing the impact of Irma and Maria showed the ways in which islands suffered after the storms' fury. Among many things, children didn't have schools to go back to and dialysis patients had their treatment disrupted. Affected islands struggled for weeks without electricity and running water, increasing the likelihood for disease.