COP29: crucial decisions to protect small island states

Small Island Devel­op­ing States (SIDS) is a term used to describe a dis­tinct group of devel­op­ing coun­tries that share spe­cif­ic social, eco­nom­ic, and envi­ron­men­tal vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties. This group of coun­tries and ter­ri­to­ries¹ exhib­it unique devel­op­ment chal­lenges due to their small geo­graph­i­cal size, iso­la­tion, and lim­it­ed nat­ur­al resources. Their eco­nom­ic vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties stem from reliance on a nar­row range of exports and high import depen­dence, exac­er­bat­ed by their expo­sure to envi­ron­men­tal risks, includ­ing cli­mate change, nat­ur­al dis­as­ters, and sea-lev­el rise, which threat­en both urban and rur­al com­mu­ni­ties, mak­ing cli­mate change a dai­ly real­i­ty for these island nations rather than a the­o­ret­i­cal threat.

The Unit­ed Nations (UN) has recog­nised the unique chal­lenges faced by SIDS and has pro­vid­ed plat­forms such as the Bar­ba­dos Pro­gramme of Action (1994), the Mau­ri­tius Strat­e­gy (2005), and the SAMOA Path­way (2014) to address their spe­cif­ic needs. Inter­na­tion­al cli­mate con­fer­ences, notably COP28 and COP29, have increas­ing­ly spot­light­ed SIDS resilience strate­gies, financ­ing gaps, and the press­ing need for glob­al col­lab­o­ra­tion to sup­port these vul­ner­a­ble nations.

Recog­nis­ing these vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties, inter­na­tion­al efforts have focused on address­ing the unique needs of SIDS, par­tic­u­lar­ly through ini­tia­tives high­light­ed at COP conferences.

At COP28, the his­toric agree­ment to estab­lish the “Loss and Dam­age” fund was a momen­tous step for­ward. Ini­tial­ly pro­posed at COP27, this fund com­mit­ted numer­ous coun­tries to invest in the eco­log­i­cal tran­si­tion and cli­mate adap­ta­tion mea­sures of devel­op­ing nations. The total amount pledged dur­ing COP28 reached approx­i­mate­ly $770 mil­lion. How­ev­er, this fig­ure rep­re­sents only about 0.2% of the esti­mat­ed needs of SIDS, which encom­pass invest­ments in adap­ta­tion tech­nolo­gies cru­cial to pre­vent their phys­i­cal dis­ap­pear­ance and tran­si­tion­ing to sus­tain­able ener­gy sources².

Build­ing on this foun­da­tion, COP29 shift­ed the focus from com­mit­ments to oper­a­tional­i­sa­tion. The Loss and Dam­age Fund became ready to dis­trib­ute funds by 2025, with Swe­den con­tribut­ing an addi­tion­al $19 mil­lion, bring­ing total com­mit­ments to over $720 mil­lion. This mile­stone reflects progress, yet as UN Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al António Guter­res empha­sised, much more is required. At COP29, he called for inno­v­a­tive fund­ing sources such as sol­i­dar­i­ty levies on ship­ping, avi­a­tion, and fos­sil fuel extrac­tion, and for strength­en­ing mul­ti­lat­er­al lend­ing capac­i­ties to meet the scale of the crisis:

“The cre­ation of the Loss and Dam­age Fund is a vic­to­ry for devel­op­ing coun­tries, for mul­ti­lat­er­al­ism, and for jus­tice. But its ini­tial cap­i­tal­i­sa­tion of $700 mil­lion doesn’t come close to right­ing the wrong inflict­ed on the vul­ner­a­ble (…). I urge coun­tries to com­mit new finance to the Fund. And to write cheques to match. But bilat­er­al flows alone won’t suf­fice. We need new respons­es, and new sources, to meet the scale of need. I urge coun­tries to agree a new cli­mate finance goal that taps inno­v­a­tive sources. We need to imple­ment sol­i­dar­i­ty levies on sec­tors such as ship­ping, avi­a­tion, and fos­sil fuel extrac­tion – to help fund cli­mate action.  We need a fair price on car­bon. And, more broad­ly, we also need to sup­port Mul­ti­lat­er­al Devel­op­ment Banks in order to increase the lend­ing capac­i­ty, so they are fit to respond to the cli­mate cri­sis.”

SIDS lead­ers at COP29 echoed these demands. The Chair of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), Hon. Toe­ole­su­lusu­lu Cedric Schus­ter, stressed the urgency of access­ing and oper­a­tional­iz­ing the fund, under­scor­ing the need for equi­table and stream­lined path­ways to cli­mate finance:

“At COP26, we were promised the dou­bling of adap­ta­tion finance, yet access remains chal­leng­ing for coun­tries like ours with the least capac­i­ty and resources. (….) The new­ly estab­lished fund for respond­ing to loss and dam­age must come into play here. Small island states have advo­cat­ed for such a fund for many years. It is crit­i­cal that it is ful­ly oper­a­tionalised, cap­i­talised, and begins to dis­burse finance as quick­ly as pos­si­ble.”

The adop­tion of the Baku Dec­la­ra­tion at COP29 fur­ther empha­sised prac­ti­cal actions, ele­vat­ing SIDS voic­es and address­ing health impacts through col­lab­o­ra­tions with the World Health Orga­ni­za­tion and oth­er stake­hold­ers. This expand­ed agen­da reflects a holis­tic under­stand­ing of resilience, mov­ing beyond finance and infra­struc­ture to include pub­lic health and well-being.

Due to their remote loca­tion, scarci­ty of resources, and sus­cep­ti­bil­i­ty to severe weath­er, SIDS are par­tic­u­lar­ly vul­ner­a­ble to the effects of cli­mate change. Inno­v­a­tive, inte­grat­ed solu­tions that tack­le both short-term risks and long-term sus­tain­abil­i­ty are required to address these exac­er­bat­ed issues. Adopt­ing Mul­ti­sec­toral Action Path­ways (MAPs), a frame­work cre­at­ed to address the inter­re­lat­ed issues SIDS face, espe­cial­ly in their most vul­ner­a­ble regions, like coastal cities, is one such solution.

Through coor­di­nat­ed efforts across sec­tors such as infra­struc­ture, finance, edu­ca­tion, health, and agri­cul­ture, MAPs pro­vide a coop­er­a­tive frame­work to address com­plex soci­etal chal­lenges. MAPs gen­er­ate syn­er­gies that bol­ster resilience by coor­di­nat­ing com­mon objec­tives, involv­ing stake­hold­ers, com­bin­ing resources, and guar­an­tee­ing gov­er­nance account­abil­i­ty. MAPs pro­mote inte­grat­ed plan­ning in the areas of ener­gy, trans­porta­tion, and urban devel­op­ment for cli­mate adap­ta­tion, which low­ers green­house gas emis­sions and increas­es com­mu­ni­ties’ abil­i­ty to with­stand cli­mate risks.

Because of their remote loca­tion, del­i­cate ecosys­tems, and reliance on resource-depen­dent economies, SIDS face addi­tion­al dif­fi­cul­ties. These vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties grow severe by a lack of fund­ing, heavy debt loads, and inad­e­quate tech­no­log­i­cal and human resources. Extreme weath­er events like hur­ri­canes, cyclones, and ris­ing sea lev­els exac­er­bate envi­ron­men­tal threats like soil ero­sion, land degra­da­tion, and water scarci­ty, putting vital infra­struc­ture and liveli­hoods at risk. The urgent need for focused resilience strate­gies is high­light­ed by the fact that Pacif­ic islands like Van­u­atu reg­u­lar­ly face cyclones and coastal ero­sion, while Caribbean coun­tries like Domini­ca and Jamaica strug­gle with rapid urban­iza­tion and the growth of infor­mal set­tle­ments³.

The urgent need for focused resilience strate­gies is high­light­ed by the fact that Pacif­ic islands like Van­u­atu reg­u­lar­ly face cyclones and coastal erosion.

Adapt­ing to cli­mate impacts is hin­dered by siloed urban man­age­ment that frag­ments respons­es across sec­tors like infra­struc­ture, health, and envi­ron­ment. Insuf­fi­cient data shar­ing between agen­cies fur­ther reduces effi­cien­cy and com­pli­cates the imple­men­ta­tion of coor­di­nat­ed strate­gies⁴.

Financ­ing is anoth­er major obsta­cle, with uneven­ly dis­trib­uted resources mak­ing it dif­fi­cult for SIDS to secure equi­table and con­sis­tent sup­port for long-term resilience⁵. Tar­get­ed, mul­ti­sec­toral approach­es like MAPs are cru­cial for address­ing these inter­con­nect­ed chal­lenges effi­cient­ly. The fol­low­ing case stud­ies illus­trate how MAPs are applied to strength­en resilience in the Pacif­ic and Caribbean regions.

In Van­u­atu, MAP ini­tia­tives like the Inte­grat­ed Urban Resilience in Small Island Devel­op­ing States (IUR-SIDS) and the Greater Port Vila Urban Resilience Project (GPVURP) demon­strate how mul­ti­sec­toral strate­gies enhance resilience. Sup­port­ed by the Asian Devel­op­ment Bank and UNDP, resource pool­ing and stake­hold­er engage­ment have been crit­i­cal to these projects, enabling the inte­gra­tion of infra­struc­ture, gov­er­nance, and eco­log­i­cal solu­tions, such as cyclone shel­ters, urban plan­ning train­ing, and man­grove restora­tion for coastal defence. Their impact extends beyond Port Vila, serv­ing as a resilience mod­el for oth­er Pacif­ic islands⁶.

GPVURP focus­es on gov­er­nance and infra­struc­ture, involv­ing pub­lic par­tic­i­pa­tion and haz­ard map­ping to address dis­as­ter risks. With $11.77 mil­lion in fund­ing, it empha­sis­es local solu­tions to with­stand cyclones and reduce urban flood­ing⁷.

MAP pro­grams in the Caribbean under­line the impor­tance of local gov­ern­ment involve­ment in cli­mate adap­ta­tion. In Jamaica, the Local Gov­er­nance Act of 2016 man­dates munic­i­pal­i­ties to enforce urban plan­ning, pro­mote envi­ron­men­tal health, and man­age dis­as­ters. Despite fund­ing and tech­ni­cal chal­lenges, ICT tools like social media have improved cit­i­zen engage­ment, enabling com­mu­ni­ties in Kingston to par­tic­i­pate in cli­mate adap­ta­tion⁸.

Sim­i­lar­ly, Trinidad & Tobago’s Munic­i­pal Cor­po­ra­tions Act tasks local gov­ern­ments with dis­as­ter man­age­ment and envi­ron­men­tal reg­u­la­tion, but finan­cial and tech­ni­cal lim­i­ta­tions hin­der full imple­men­ta­tion. Issues like flood­ing high­light the need for mul­ti­sec­toral part­ner­ships to address resilience. MAP approach­es in Trinidad and Jamaica could enhance cli­mate adap­ta­tion by fos­ter­ing col­lab­o­ra­tion between gov­ern­ments, busi­ness­es, and inter­na­tion­al orga­ni­za­tions, pro­mot­ing resource shar­ing, data access, and capac­i­ty building.

Pacif­ic and Caribbean SIDS are using dif­fer­ent strate­gies for cli­mate resilience. The Pacif­ic relies on region­al coop­er­a­tion, exem­pli­fied by the Pacif­ic Islands Forum and PACRES, to coor­di­nate dis­as­ter respons­es, pro­tect marine resources, and build shared capac­i­ties. In con­trast, the Caribbean focus­es on inter­na­tion­al part­ner­ships like PACC 2030 (U.S.-Caribbean Part­ner­ship to Address the Cli­mate Cri­sis 2030), which sup­ports clean ener­gy projects and devel­op­ment financ­ing to meet Paris Agree­ment goals. These dif­fer­ences sug­gest that while Caribbean islands ben­e­fit from glob­al part­ner­ships and nation­al pol­i­cy inte­gra­tion, Pacif­ic islands require region­al col­lab­o­ra­tion. Flex­i­ble MAP strate­gies are essen­tial to address each region’s unique socioe­co­nom­ic and geo­graph­ic needs.

As COP30 approach­es, the momen­tum gained at COP29 presents a vital oppor­tu­ni­ty to expand MAP pro­grams and secure mean­ing­ful inter­na­tion­al sup­port for SIDS. The shift from pledges to tan­gi­ble action under­scores the need for col­lab­o­ra­tion, inno­v­a­tive solu­tions, and tai­lored resilience strategies.

While progress has been made, sig­nif­i­cant gaps remain. The inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty must pri­ori­tise finan­cial resources, tech­ni­cal assis­tance, and stream­lined access to cli­mate finance. Part­ner­ships that address the unique vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties of SIDS are essen­tial to ensur­ing sus­tain­able and equi­table solutions.

The stakes are exis­ten­tial. With deci­sive action, inno­v­a­tive invest­ments, and glob­al sol­i­dar­i­ty, SIDS can trans­form into mod­els of resilience and sus­tain­abil­i­ty, nav­i­gat­ing the chal­lenges of cli­mate change with strength and adapt­abil­i­ty. MAPs offer a prac­ti­cal frame­work to achieve this, fos­ter­ing col­lab­o­ra­tion across sec­tors and empow­er­ing local com­mu­ni­ties to imple­ment tai­lored, impact­ful solu­tions. The time for promis­es is over. The future of SIDS depends on imme­di­ate, coor­di­nat­ed action from the glob­al community.