Caricom plans to develop strategies to bring more attention to the vulnerability of low-lying countries to rising sea levels. The 15-nation Caribbean Community announced it will hold a regional meeting next month in St. Lucia to seek a unified position ahead of a U.N. climate change summit in Denmark in December.

Trade bloc spokesman Garfield Barnwell said Tuesday that the threat of rising sea levels is the grouping’s key point. More than half the Caribbean’s population lives within a mile of the coast and a recent World Bank report listed six countries in the region as among the most vulnerable to rising seas: Suriname, Guyana, Jamaica, Belize, the Bahamas and Haiti.