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.