"THE water is destroying us, one house at a time." These were the desperate words of one islander from Sierra Leone. But he is not alone.
At the end of last month, 39 member states and 22 heads of state and government convened at the fourth International Conference on Small Islands Developing States (SIDS) in Antigua and Barbuda.
Known to insiders as “SIDS4”, the conference agreed on a 10-year plan that included a ground-breaking new support service which will help small islands negotiate fairer repayment terms or reduced interest rates on loans; access novel financial instruments such as debt-for-climate swaps and carbon markets; and request debt relief.
But it will not be enough. More than 65 million people who live on SIDS face a climate meltdown for which they bear less than 1% of the blame.
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Already five Pacific islands have been lost. Only recently about 300 families lost their homes on a small island off Panama’s coast due to rising seas.
Because small islands are the first and the worst hit by climate change, the lack of support from richer nations will constitute not just planet-shattering ecocide but climate-induced genocide of those left to suffer.
To reverse this dire trend, SIDS states need more than what was agreed upon at the UN summit.
We need an entire arsenal of adaptation solutions – from climate finance to green technologies – or our homes and our lives will be destroyed.
Even with the new agreement, creditors are strangling our potential to adapt. Rising sea levels and coastal flooding is costing SIDS almost $2 billion per year, yet the World Bank recently proposed higher interest rates and shortened repayment windows. In our time of need, this amounts to nothing less than economic warfare.
While we gained the support of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), which ruled countries can now be deemed responsible for the ocean-polluting impact of their greenhouse gas emissions, the battle is not over yet. China has already dismissed the non-binding decision and others are expected to follow suit.
This is because wealthy nations like the UK continue to pump billions into fossil fuel development in poorer countries, ignoring the enormous potential for SIDS to introduce the world to ocean energy and lead the way towards 100% in renewables.
Climate finance for SIDS has been historically very low and access to the UN’s Green Climate Fund is proving to be a struggle, with a third of projects languishing in the pipeline’s bureaucracy for more than three years.
Any meaningful change will require a paradigm shift and a reassessment of perspectives – concerns we brought directly to world leaders at last year’s annual UN climate summit, COP28.
The resulting UAE Consensus, orchestrated by COP28 president Sultan Al Jaber and signed by 198 nations, promised to transition away from fossil fuels and enshrined long-overdue initiatives such the Loss and Damage Fund – which included donations totalling over £556 million from countries such as the UAE, Germany, and France.
At the first board meeting of the Loss and Damage fund, Al Jaber said: “That was a good start. It is not enough.”
This is because we need more than just aid. Our allies must radically boost investments to build small island resilience.
Everything from innovative climate finance to green technologies are required to guard against this spiral of climate chaos created by arch-polluters.
While Scotland was the first country to recognise its moral obligations, pledging an initial £2m at COP26 which recently increased to £6m, the wider UK is increasingly backing away from wider climate commitments.
Last month’s Climate Damages Tax report proposed a new levy on the extraction of fossil fuels by companies based in the world’s richest economies.
This could generate as much as £580bn by the end of the decade, complementing the EU’s global carbon pricing mechanism already supported by 31 countries.
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With this levy, the UK and other developed countries could use this money to breathe life into a new and specialised SIDS Emergency Adaptation Fund, opening the door to vital private-sector investment so that small islands can decide how best to deploy resources and keep our blue economies afloat.
Of course, none of this will work if we remain trapped in unsustainable debt. Which is why the World Bank must reverse course and support comprehensive debt relief, bearing in mind the moral debt wealthy nations owe us.
Ultimately, all of this hinges on SIDS nations gaining more equitable partnerships and support for the imminent launch of our new Centre of Excellence.
This would alleviate our bitter trilemma of low energy access, regulatory and funding barriers and the fossil fuel dependencies foisted on us, while the best minds tailor the most specialised solutions to our unique challenges.
The fate of small islands is a barometer for civilisation. If we sink, it will be too late for much for the planet. Let’s not squander this last chance.
Tumasie Blair is the deputy permanent representative of Antigua and Barbuda to the United Nations. He has been a senior diplomat for Antigua and Barbuda Mission to the UN for more than 20 years.
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