World Bulletin
Small Island Nations Refuse to Take On More Water
By Mirva Lempiainen
July 22 – The image of chilling out on a paradise beach on a tropical island may become a mirage as more big nations put the fate of small islands at risk, according to United Nations representatives of small-island nations.
“The world has an obligation to ensure that ‘no island is left behind,’ ” said Dessima Williams, Grenada's ambassador to the UN and chairwoman of the Alliance of Small Island States, which represents 42 of the world’s smallest island countries. Williams was speaking at a press conference during an alliance meeting at UN Headquarters on July 10.
 | | Climate change brings on changing rain patterns, rising sea levels and intense cyclones, putting the survival of small islands, like Tahiti, at risk. Photo by Mirva Lempiainen. |
Indeed, if greenhouse gas emissions are not curbed further than what world leaders have so far agreed upon, the representatives said that many islands will slip under the ocean by midcentury. Many of these islands are already suffering from extreme weather patterns and dealing with problems resulting from receding coastlines, they said.
“It is a cruel irony that without adequate global commitments, the countries contributing least to global warming will be the ones most affected by its consequences,” Williams said.
The July 10 meeting occurred right after the G8 summit in L’Aquila, Italy, ended. At that meeting, President Barack Obama put climate change front and center in discussions. But the world’s biggest developing nations, led by China and India, refused to commit to specific goals for reducing heat-trapping gases by 2050, undermining the push to build a global consensus by the end of this year to reverse the threat of worldwide warming.
At the Alliance of Small Island States meeting, the leaders not only expressed their growing concerns about the effects of climate change but also their hopes for an agreement at the worldwide climate conference in Copenhagen in December.
The small island leaders said that the current climate control target announced by the major economies’ leaders in Italy, a 2.0 degrees Celsius temperature rise above pre-industrial levels, is not acceptable.
This “exceeds safe thresholds necessary for the protection and survival of small islands,” Williams said.
Ronny Jumeau, ambassador from Seychelles, said, “You are asking us to sign a suicide note.”
On behalf of the alliance, Williams called for emissions cuts that would limit temperature increases to below 1.5 degrees Celsius. This, she stressed, should not be too much to ask since it is not a far cry from the 2.0 degrees, yet it would make a huge difference.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon issued a statement on June 9 regarding the promised greenhouse emission cuts. UN News quoted Ban as saying that such commitments "while welcome, are not sufficient ... The time for delays and half-measures is over.”
According to a recent report of the Geneva-based Global Humanitarian Forum, headed by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, “climate change is already highly dangerous.” Two degrees, he added, “would be catastrophic.”
Selwin Hart, the first secretary from Barbados and the alliance’s technical negotiator for long-term cooperative action, said that climate change has already had dramatic consequences for small-island nations.
One example, he said, is the strengthening power of hurricanes. In 2004, the financial damage that Hurricane Ivan caused on Grenada amounted to 200 percent of its gross domestic product.
In the Pacific Ocean, he said, “sea level rise threatens survival,” and without action, “The Maldives will disappear within a few decades.”
Jumeau pointed out that the climate change effects on small-island nations lead to another major consequence: forced international migration. Unlike residents of bigger nations, island dwellers do not have the ability to migrate within their own country, given the geographical realities.
“If we run from a receding coastline, we run to the other side of the island to find another receding coastline,” he said.
The alliance members emphasized that the price of acting now in climate issues will be much cheaper than the price of inaction later, when it’s too late to save small islands.
“We are talking of whole peoples, whole civilizations moving to relocate either to higher islands or other countries or nearby continents,” Jumeau said.
In unison, alliance leaders said they have put their hopes on the Copenhagen conference.
“We see no other option but for Copenhagen to deliver quantifiable results,” Hart of Barbados said.
The leaders remained positive despite the fact that critics have predicted that the conference will fail because of a lack of commitment from many large countries, particularly India and China.
“There’s no tomorrow unless Copenhagen delivers,” said Ambassador Collin Beck from Solomon Islands, who also serves as the alliance’s vice- chair. “We are banking everything on a positive outcome in Copenhagen.”
The members said they planned to make their voices heard in December and will not let anyone off the hook.
“If we don’t recognize this now, it’s a time bomb that eventually will explode,” Beck said.
The leaders plan to meet shortly before a UN climate summit of global leaders in New York on Sept. 22 in hopes of securing an agreement in Copenhagen.
For the latest World Bulletin, visit www.unausa.org/worldbulletin.
Mirva Lempiainen is a publications intern and a student at the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism.
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