While small island developing states (SIDS) stand in the clashes of climate change, the economic and social impacts of a post COVID-19 quandary, and staggering debt burdens, the international community now congress in earnest on the Caribbean Island of Antigua and Barbuda to review its sustainable development progress.
Designed at assessing the growth and trials faced by small island developing states in achieving the sustainable development goals agenda, the fourth international conference on small island developing states (SIDS4) is a grave forum in addressing the climate crisis to nurturing economic resilience.
Despite contending with social, environmental, and economic challenges, small island developing states are debilitated and unable to build resilient prosperity because of the continuous rotation of tragedy and salvage caused by climate change. As sea levels continue to rise, the impacts of enormous damages to infrastructure, coral reefs and extreme weather events like tropical storms, hurricanes, droughts and cyclones are continuing to annihilate small island developing states from the path of resilient prosperity.
Aside from the fact that small island developing states are responsible for only 0.2 per cent of global carbon emissions, they are now suffering the most from the impacts of climate change. It now seems that small island developing states are the battle zone of the climate challenge in the world at large, while at the same time, their debt levels are continuing to rise because of the increase of disaster impacts caused by climate change.
According to the World Bank, the annual cost of damages from natural disasters in small island developing states range from between 1-8 percent of their gross domestic products (GDP), and climate change has the potential to increase these risks 33-50 percent by 2030.
This means, that if finance statistics on small island developing states are correct, then, they are presently receiving seven times less finance than least developed countries, 11 times less than lower middle-income countries, and five times less than upper middle-income countries.
Accordingly, Rabab Fatima, United Nations high representative for small island developing states, and special adviser for the SIDS4 conference contends, that the cumulative effects of weather, climate and water-related hazards in small island developing states, has caused a staggering US$153 billion dollars of losses in the last 50 years and continue to pose existential threats to small island developing states.
Clearly, this vulnerability must be accounted for in the apportionment of development for climate finance, at the SIDS4 conference, because the international allocation of climate finance is not linked to levels of susceptibility. Moreover, if finance is a powerful catalyst for sustainable development, economic prosperity, and preserving the irreplaceable ecosystems that define the small states of the Caribbean, then international organisations (IOs), including the UN system, World Bank, and World Trade Organisation must also take this vulnerability into account in the global bargain towards resilient prosperity as well.
Furthermore, post pandemic COVID-19 repercussions are continuing to exacerbate the challenge of resilient prosperity for small island developing states. The COVID-19 pandemic has not only blatantly exposed the fragility of the economies of small island developing states, and caused a sharp decline in tourism, but high infection and mortality rates are now placing irresistible pressure on health systems escalating in deaths and deficiencies. The pandemic has also prompted a contraction of up to 16 percent of GDP, forcing United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), to contend that an estimated 169 million people in small island developing states could be driven into extreme poverty by 2030. Coupled with youth unemployment rates that has exceeded 50 percent, agricultural, energy, and industrial metal commodity prices and exports are also continuing to fall to negative trade balance in small island states, thus crippling economic diversification.
In essence, the fragile economies of small island developing states are acutely vulnerable to threats of sustainability, and in some cases to their very existence. Small island developing states are a risk to global biodiversity and security and dialogues on global financial reform are urgently needed as they are very often excluded from accessing the investment they so urgently need because of complex processes currently required to negotiate, receive and manage funds.
Given these circumstances, it is clear that small island developing states are now faced with severe economic and social impacts which require bold government action and strong international support. The SIDS4 international conference now presents a momentous importance for small island developing states to be recognized in the sustainable development goals agenda. Collective action towards enhancing the economic diversification, resilience and disaster recovery of small island states and propelling sustainable development through strategies, policies, and initiatives mobilization of climate finance must be addressed. The focus should now be on partnerships and policies for the utilization of sustainable growth, tourism, marine management, ocean industry expansion, renewable energy, and ecosystems for the blue economy.
Against this backdrop the role of the United Nations in addressing the needs of small island developing states must be strengthened because the effects of climate change, the economic and social impacts of a post COVID 19 dilemma, and the overwhelming debt burdens on small island developing states are not events of a distant future. In fact, they are lived experiences. Small island states continue to bear the brunt of the climate crisis despite contributing little to it. Although it is commendable that small developing island states are turning to their marine environment, renewable energy, and digital innovation to mitigate the adverse impacts of climate change, effective responses are also necessary from stakeholders, government, civil society and the private sector to reduce vulnerability and in increasing resilience to ensure sustainable development.
In the quest to create a strong agenda for the next decade of action, the global bargain towards resilient prosperity must also guarantee a sustainable future for all.
Rebecca Theodore is an international journalist and syndicated op-ed columnist based in New York. She writes on the platform of national security, politics, human rights and the environment. Email her at
