Context:
At the UNFCCC COP27 in 2022, held in Sharm El Sheikh, a significant development was the creation of a loss and damage fund aimed at assisting climate-vulnerable nations, especially Small Island Developing States (SIDS). Despite this progress, wealthier nations, which are the largest carbon emitters, have not fulfilled their financial commitments to the fund. This lack of support leaves many vulnerable countries without the necessary resources to tackle the impacts of climate change, highlighting a gap between agreed actions and actual financial contributions.
Relevance:
GS III: Environment and Ecology
Dimensions of the Article:
- Small Island Developing States (SIDS)
- Direct and Indirect impacts
- Developed Countries Need to Pay Up
Small Island Developing States (SIDS)
- Small Island Developing States (SIDS) is a unique group of countries that shares similar challenges as far as the dimension of sustainable development is concerned. Despite the scenic beauties and wonderful cultures of these beautiful countries, SIDS suffers from vulnerability in social, economic, and environmental dimensions.
Characteristics of SIDS
- Geographical Distribution SIDS are spread in three major regions of the world: the Caribbean, the Pacific, and the Atlantic, Indian Ocean, and South China Sea (AIS) regions. This wide spread to the waters underlines the global nature of the group and the diversified challenges they face.
- At Global Forums: The peculiar condition of SIDS was globally acknowledged through the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in 1992. Their specific environmental and developmental needs have called the world’s attention due to their distinction among the rest of the developing states.
Some of the Countries that fall in this Category of SIDS
They include the following nations who are categorized under the rubric of SIDS.
- Caribbean: Countries including Jamaica and Barbados; whose cultures are very strong and tourism-based.
- Pacific: Countries including Fiji and Samoa; known for best marine biodiversity and culture.
- AIS: Countries include Maldives and Seychelles, like beauty but the highest to be threatened by sea level rise.
Developmental Challenges
- Environmental Vulnerabilities: Hurricanes, earthquakes, and tsunamis might affect many SIDS. Once more, the threat of climatic changes like sea-level rise poses an impassable threat to the SIDS as they are lowland countries.
- Economic Vulnerabilities: The lack of wider natural and economic resources, coupled with a reliance on single sectors of economies such as tourism and fisheries, places SIDS at higher risks from international economic fluctuations.
- Social Challenges: High population density, limited land, and remote locations form complex social issues, among which is mostly limited access to good healthcare and education.
Direct and Indirect impacts
- The changes are not felt immediately, but rather as the economy stalls, tourism dries up, and expensive recovery plans inhibit spending in other areas.
- In all, from 2000 to 2020, these direct and indirect impacts may have cost small island states a total of US$141 billion.
- That works out to around US$2,000 per person on average, although this figure underplays just how bad things can get in some places.
- Hurricane Maria in 2017 caused damage to the Caribbean island of Dominica worth more than double its entire GDP. That amounted to around US$20,000 per person, overnight. Almost a decade later, the country is still struggling with one of the largest debt burdens on earth at over 150% of GDP.
- Of these huge aggregate losses across all the small island development states, around 38% are attributable to climate change.
- Small island economies are among the worst affected by severe weather. These island states have three to five times more climate-related loss and damage than other states, as a percentage of government revenues.
- That’s true even for wealthier small island states, like the Bahamas and Barbados, where loss and damage is four times greater than other high-income countries.
- For all small island nations, the economic impacts will increase, with “attributable” losses from extreme weather reaching US$75 billion by 2050 if global temperatures hit 2°C above pre-industrial levels.
Developed Countries Need to Pay Up
- One of the key discussions at the forthcoming COP29 climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, will be the “new collective quantified goal”. This is the technical name to describe how much money wealthy countries will need to contribute to help vulnerable nations to mitigate and adapt to climate change.
- That overall goal must also include a target to finance small islands and other vulnerable countries, with billions more needed per year in the new loss and damage fund.
- Given the extent of actual and likely losses, nothing less than ambition on the scale of a “modern Marshall Plan” for these states will do.
- In addition to this extra financing, the fund will need to work effectively to support the most climate vulnerable nations and populations when severe weather occurs.
- The fund could create a budget support mechanism that can help small island states and other vulnerable countries deal with loss of income and the negative effects on growth.
- It could make sure loss and damage funds can be released quickly, and ensure support is channelled to those who need it the most. It could also make more concessional finance available for recovery, especially for the most adversely affected sectors like agriculture and tourism.
-Source: Down To Earth
