World's island states meet to tackle climate and fiscal challenges May 27, 2024

Antigua and Barbuda to host Small Island Developing States conference on Monday (CHANDAN KHANNA)

By AFP - Agence France Presse

World's island states meet to tackle climate and fiscal challenges

Extremely vulnerable to climate change, not rich enough to stop it on their own, and not poor enough to depend on aid and development funding: the world's small island countries are preparing for fiscal and climate shocks.

Both will be high on the agenda this week when the Small Island Developing States (SIDS), as they are formally known, meet on Monday at their fourth UN Conference in the Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda.

Caught between rising debts and rising oceans, from the Caribbean to Africa and the Pacific, many SIDS share characteristics that make them especially vulnerable to external shocks: small land masses housing dispersed and isolated populations, with import-dependent and undiversified economies.

Climate change, with its brutal droughts, powerful hurricanes, and rising seas, is threatening to wipe some of them off the map.

“The next ten years are critical for SIDS,” says the draft document to be adopted at the UN conference, which will bring together countries ranging from Asian economic heavyweight Singapore to Cape Verde in Africa and the Bahamas.

High on the agenda of the 39 states, whose population is approximately 65 million people: increasing climate finance, even though many criticize the slow pace of fulfilling previous UN aid promises.

“The hard truth is that, for these countries, climate change is already a reality,” Achim Steiner, head of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), told AFP. “Given the small size of their economies... an extreme weather event can set a country back 5 to 10 years in its development.”

“A hurricane, a typhoon that crosses - by sheer lottery of bad luck - the land of a small island developing state can destroy a third or more of a country's entire infrastructure.”

However, most small island states are classified as middle-income or higher, which means they don't have access to the international aid and preferential financing available to the world's poorest countries.

In addition, many of them are also already facing heavy debts. As a whole, the UN estimates that SIDS will spend 15.9% of government revenue in 2024 on interest alone.

“They are stuck in a no man's land, where funding from the international community, which is usually a kind of safety net, is simply not available to them,” said Steiner.

According to the UNDP, around US$4.7 to 7.3 billion in funding is needed per year for climate adaptation measures in SIDS countries alone.

“SIDS cannot be left to drown in crises that were not of their own making. That would have catastrophic consequences for the whole world,” said Fatumanava-o-Upolu III Dr. Pa'olelei Luteru, Samoa's ambassador to the UN.

- 'Blue economy' -

In addition to seeking foreign aid, however, many are also turning to reforming their economies.

Priorities include developing renewable energy sectors and engaging in the so-called “blue economy” of sustainable fishing and ocean conservation - a serious opportunity for SIDS countries, which account for 19% of the world's Exclusive Economic Zones.

Tourism could also become more sustainable, although the specter of climate change hangs over the marine biodiversity and coral reefs of these countries, which attract divers from all over the world.

Even just getting there has come under increasing scrutiny, as air travel is being criticized for its high emissions - a kind of “double punishment”, said Steiner.

The effects of climate change also overlap with other problems faced by many poor or marginalized people in small island countries, which must be tackled internally, said Nicole Leotaud, executive director of the Caribbean Natural Resources Institute.

“They are already marginalized because they are poor,” she said. “They are already marginalized because of their gender or race.”

“And these climate impacts are another layer of injustice for these people.”

By Amélie BOTTOLLIER-DEPOIS

abd/nro/st