The two FIELD papers below may be of interest to readers from SIDS.

The two FIELD papers below may be of interest to readers from SIDS.

“Loss and damage caused by climate change: legal strategies for vulnerable countries” (available at http://www.field.org.uk/news/climate-damage-new-legal-strategies) suggests that vulnerable countries may benefit from considering a range of options, including options beyond the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol. The paper considers negotiations on loss and damage under the UNFCCC, dispute settlement under the UNFCCC or Kyoto Protocol, and international litigation. The paper then focuses on the evolving international law concept of reparations for damage. It suggests that vulnerable countries might consider pursuing a reparations-based strategy in international negotiations beyond the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol, in particular negotiations about the UN’s post-2015 development agenda. The paper highlights new proposals about reparations, including proposals by Maxine Burkett related to climate reparations. FIELD believes that vulnerable countries should play a strong role in shaping how international law on reparations for climate change damage develops.

“International institutions and new sustainable development goals beyond 2015: climate change, poor and vulnerable countries” (at http://www.field.org.uk/news/beyond-2015-climate-poor-and-vulnerable-countries) argues that post-Rio + 20 changes to international institutions and proposed global sustainable development goals should give priority to climate change and poor and vulnerable countries. The paper highlights that the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol recognize that particularly vulnerable countries and countries such as LDCs, LLDCs and SIDS require special attention and argues that this should also be reflected in changes to international institutions and in new sustainable development goals. The paper considers human security as a potential conceptual framework for strengthening international institutions and determining new goals. It emphasizes challenges for poor and vulnerable countries in a world where advancing climate change is likely to pose an increasing threat to sustainable development and human security.

FIELD would welcome comments on the papers (field@field.org.uk<mailto:field@field.org.uk>).


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Secretary-General Assures CARICOM of Better Cooperation, Requests Engagement on SDGs and Post-2015 Agenda

27 September 2012: During a meeting on the sidelines of the opening of the UN General Assembly session, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon assured leaders of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) of improved cooperation between the UN and CARICOM regarding trade, debt, climate change and transnational organized crime, among other issues.

He also pledged to continue to raise the issue of the vulnerability of Caribbean island nations to the international financial crisis with the Group of Eight (G8) and Group of 20 (G20) countries.

Ban made the remarks during a meeting with CARICOM Chair Kenny Anthony, Prime Minister of Saint Lucia, as well as President Donald Romotar of Guyana, Prime Minister Simpson Miller of Jamaica, and other CARICOM leaders, at UN Headquarters in New York, US, on 27 September 2012.

Ban said he is committed to ensuring that both the CARICOM Secretariat and CARICOM Member States receive UN assistance that is "more targeted and more responsive to the needs of the region." He mentioned, for example, current talks with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to implement a regional strategy and to return a small permanent office to the Caribbean.

The Secretary-General thanked CARICOM for its leadership in the lead-up to the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD, or Rio+20), and asked the Community to "continue that dynamic engagement" during the establishment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the construction of a post-2015 development agenda. [Statement of UN Secretary-General] More

 

Tian Huang: Climate Victims Deserve a Hearing, Whether Here or in The Hague

Last week, leaders of the 193 members of the United Nations General Assembly descended upon New York to open that body's sixty-seventh session. Among the pressing questions facing the body is the adequacy of the international community's current approach to the problem of climate change. The leaders also held a high-level meeting on the rule of law at the national and international levels.

The two agenda items could not be more in sync: All over the world, climate change is creating victims who lack protection of the rule of law. For instance, island nations such as Cape Verde, Grenada, the Marshall Islands, and Palau are seeing their lands increasingly affected by rising sea levels, intensifying storms, and other threats that owe their genesis to greenhouse gas emissions. In the United States, we also are seeing the devastating effects of anthropogenic climate change, most pointedly in the Alaskan village of Kivalina.

The city of Kivalina and its native village reside on the tip of a six-mile barrier reef. With a decline of protective sea ice and a rise of storms and surges, Kivalina's land is being swallowed up - -so much so that the U.S. Government Accountability Office has warned that the village could be flooded at any time and that "[r]emaining on the island... is no longer a viable option for the community."

To fight back, Kivalina filed suit against 19 major energy companies, claiming that they, as major contributors to global warming, should help defray the costs of relocating the city.

Shortly before the U.N. session opened, a U.S. appeals court ruled that, as far as the federal government is concerned, climate change is a political problem to be addressed by the legislative and executive branches. Basic legal principles of right and responsibility, in other words, have no bearing and if the residents of Kivalina want compensation for their harms, they will have to duke it out with their opponents in Congress.

Whether in this or a subsequent U.N. session, a parallel campaign to Kivalina's will be brought to the General Assembly and the question will be raised, will the international community follow the U.S. court's lead by throwing the climate change problem to the dustbin of politics?

Last year, several small island states called on the U.N. General Assembly to request an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice on the responsibilities of nations whose emissions of greenhouse gases within their jurisdictions contribute to serious harms in other countries. Sensing that endless political negotiations have resulted in little progress internationally, the islands sought to show that the climate change problem is one of law and justice, rather than merely politics and power. More

 

Sea Level Rise: Within A Decade Vulnerable Islands Have To Evacuate Their Populations

Vulnerable island states may need to consider evacuating their populations within a decade due to a much faster than anticipated melting of the world's ice sheets. The warning comes from Michael Mann, one of the world's foremost climate scientists [1].

Michael Mann, director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University , said the latest evidence shows that models have underestimated the speed at which the Greenland and west Antarctic ice sheets will start to shrink.

Mann says the Pacific islands, which are only 4.6 meters above sea level at their highest point, are facing the imminent prospect of flooding, with salt water intrusion destroying fresh water supplies and increased erosion.

Mann, who was part of the IPCC team awarded the Nobel peace prize in 2007, said it had been expected that island nations would have several decades to adapt to rising sea levels, but that evacuation may now be their only option.

His warning comes just weeks after the National Snow and Ice Data Centre in Boulder, Colorado disclosed that sea ice in the Arctic shrank a dramatic 18% this year on the previous record set in 2007 to a record low of 3.41m sq km.

"We know Arctic sea ice is declining faster than the models predict," Mann told the Guardian at the SXSW Eco conference in Austin , Texas . "When you look at the major Greenland and the west Antarctic ice sheets, which are critical from the standpoint of sea level rise, once they begin to melt we really start to see sea level rises accelerate.

"The models have typically predicted that will not happen for decades but the measurements that are coming in tell us it is already happening so once again we are decades ahead of schedule.

" Island nations that have considered the possibility of evacuation at some point, like Tuvalu , may have to be contending those sorts of decisions within the matter of a decade or so."

Suggesting evacuations would accelerate a change in public consciousness around the issue of climate change, he said: "Thousands of years of culture is at risk of disappearing as the populations of vulnerable island states have no place to go.

"For these people, current sea levels are already representative of dangerous anthropogenic interference because they will lose their world far before the rest of us suffer.

"I think it is an example, one of a number, where the impacts are playing out in real time. It is not an abstract prediction about the future or about far off exotic creatures like polar bears. We are talking about people potentially having to evacuate from places like Tuvalu or the Arctic 's Kivalina, another low lying island which is already feeling the detrimental impacts of sea level rise."

Mann, who is one of the primary targets for attacks by "climate deniers," said that there is still uncertainty about the speed of global warming as it is not clear what the impact of feedback mechanisms could be. In particular, he pointed to the release of methane that will come as the permafrost in the arctic melts.

"We know there is methane trapped and as it escapes into the atmosphere it accelerates the warming even further," he said. "But we don't know quite how much of it there is, but there is definitely the potential to lead to even greater warming than the models predict."

Mann said it was not only island states that were feeling the impacts of climate change and warned that the terrible drought and wildfires suffered by the US this year were just the precursor of far worse to come.

"If you look at the US , some of these things are unfolding ahead of schedule and we are already contending with climate change impacts that were once theoretical," he said.

"We predicted decades ago that this might eventually happen. We are watching them unfold and there are very real consequences to our economy and to our environment.

"The climate models tell us that what today are record breaking levels of heat will become a typical summer in a matter of 20-30 years if we carry on with business as usual. Not only will this become the new normal but we will have to change the scale because we will see heat and drought far worse than anything we have seen before."

The silver lining in all the bad news is that while the political system is gridlocked when it comes to confronting climate change, public attitudes are starting to change.

"It is going to take a little while to sink in," says Mann "but there is evidence of a dramatic shift in awareness and the public increasingly recognises climate change is real and if the public becomes convinced of this, they will demand action and they are connecting the dots because we are seeing climate change playing out in a very visible way. More

 

Better protection for persons displaced by natural disasters

Bern, 02.10.2012 - Norway and Switzerland intend to set up an international agenda for the protection of persons forced to leave their country as a consequence of natural disasters. The Nansen Initiative was launched in Geneva on 2 October 2012 in the presence of Steffen Kongstad, Norway's Ambassador to the UN, and Manuel Bessler, the Federal Council delegate for humanitarian aid. The initiative aims to address the need for normative and institutional measures to protect those affected.

The ceremony in the Palais des Nations to launch the Nansen Initiative, which is named after the polar explorer and first High Commissioner for Refugees Fridtjof Nansen, was attended by numerous representatives of states, NGOs and the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Manuel Bessler, the Federal Council delegate for humanitarian aid, representing Switzerland, said in his address: "During my deployments in affected regions such as the Horn of Africa I found that cross-border movements caused by natural disasters are a real problem that has increased in importance in recent years.

It has been proven that there is a need for measures to protect persons displaced by natural disasters. Every year millions of people have to leave their homes and seek shelter elsewhere because of floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, droughts and other natural disasters. Many of these find shelter in their own country but others have to cross national borders. Movements such as these are likely to increase as a result of global warming. National and international measures to protect the persons affected are either non-existent or inadequate.

While displaced persons are protected in their own country by the UN guidelines on internal displacement and by regional instruments, there is a gap in legislation governing cross-border movements caused by natural disasters. Usually such persons are not victims of persecution and are therefore not protected under the UN Convention on Refugees. Moreover, the Human Rights Conventions do not govern key aspects such as the right to enter a country, settlement and the basic rights of those affected. There is also a lack of criteria to distinguish between cross-border movements caused by natural disasters and voluntary migration.

An inter-state process is required in order to close these gaps. At the UNHCR Ministerial Meeting held in Geneva in December 2011, Norway and Switzerland pledged to cooperate with interested countries to formulate solutions to protect persons displaced externally due to natural disasters. This pledge was welcomed by various other States and provides the basis for the Nansen Initiative. The initiative of Norway and Switzerland aims to formulate a protection agenda to serve as the basis for concrete activities in the fields of prevention, protection and assistance during cross-border displacement, return and other permanent solutions for the period following a natural disaster.

Over the next three years the initiative will carry out a series of consultations with governments and representatives of civil society in regions which are particularly affected, on the basis of which a global dialogue will then be organised with a view to formulating a protection agenda. The Nansen Initiative will be headed by a steering group consisting of between six and eight States of the South and North under the chairmanship of Norway and Switzerland. Professor Walter Kälin, a well-known Swiss expert in human rights, has been proposed as envoy of the chairmanship. A consultative committee consisting of representatives of civil society and international organisations will assist the process. The Nansen Initiative is supported by a small secretariat based in Geneva. More

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Leaders of Small Islands Adopt Climate Change Declaration at UNGA

New York—Last night, leaders from the Alliance of Small Island States’ (AOSIS), a group of 43 low-lying and coastal states that are highly vulnerable to climate change, adopted a Declaration on the sidelines of the 67^thUnited Nations General Assembly that calls for urgent action to address the climate change crisis.

“Climate change is progressing so rapidly, and the current and expected impacts are so alarming, it is absolutely critical that all of the world’s leaders immediately engage in the crisis and begin a serious dialogue about how their countries can specifically begin reducing emissions to the levels science shows is required to avoid a catastrophe. We need a global response to the crisis at an unprecedented level and that will demand leadership at the highest level,” said President Sprent Dabwido of Nauru, Chair of AOSIS.

The Declaration refocuses attention on the urgency of climate change at the once-a-year gathering of world leaders at a time when international leadership on climate change is flagging, even as extreme weather events and record-breaking droughts linked to climate change are becoming more severe and costly.

“We, the Member States of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), meeting in New York this 27^th day of September 2012,” the declaration begins, “Recalling the Charter of the United Nations, and reaffirming the principle of the sovereign equality of all nations… are gravely concerned that climate change poses the most serious threat to our territorial integrity, viability and survival, and that it undermines our efforts to achieve sustainable development goals and threatens our very existence. We reaffirm the sovereign rights of all SIDS in light of the adverse impacts of climate change…”

The Declaration also outlines concrete steps that must be taken at the 18^th Conference of the Parties in Doha at the end of the year in order to achieve essential short-term emissions reductions.

“Building on the progress achieved thus far we underscore our commitment to work towards a successful outcome at COP18/CMP8 in Doha, including the following elements:

“Adoption and provisional application of the Doha Amendments to the Kyoto Protocol pending their entry into force that:

• Ensure the widest participation of Annex I Parties in a second commitment period;

• Establish a five-year second commitment period to run from 1 January 2013 to 31 December 2017;

• Establish more ambitious quantified emission limitation or reduction commitments for all Annex I Parties to the Kyoto Protocol; and

• Limit the use of surplus carry over units in the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol to ensure environmental integrity.”

The severity of the climate crisis, and the unique risks faced by small islands, was underscored during a science presentation given by Professor Sir Robert Watson at the summit that summarized some of the latest research on climate impacts. More

Alliance of Small Island States Leaders’ Declaration, 2012 PDF

Small Islands Push for New Energy

ST. JULIAN’S, Malta, Sep 14 2012 (IPS) - Most islands are well endowed with one or more renewable energy source – rivers, waterfalls, wind, sunshine, biomass, wave power, geothermal deposits – yet virtually all remain heavily or entirely reliant on imported fossil fuels to produce electricity and power transport.

With rising oil prices, fuel import bills now represent up to 20 percent of annual imports of 34 of the 38 small island developing states (SIDS), between 5 percent to 20 percent of their Gross Domestic Product – and even up to 15 percent of the total import bills of many of the European Union’s 286 islands.

Action advocated under ‘The Malta Communiqué On Accelerating Renewable Energy Uptake For Islands’ adopted by a 50-nation two-day conference that ended here last week will hopefully slash, in some cases eliminate, reliance on fossils and related pollution, while increasing energy security, employment as well as economic and social wellbeing.

‘The Renewables and Islands Global Summit’ in Malta was co-hosted by the 100-nation International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) based in Abu Dhabi and by the government of Malta – a 316 sq km Mediterranean island republic of 410,000 inhabitants, and EU’s smallest member state.

The meeting represents a key milestone in IRENA’s initiative on renewables and islands launched by its governing council last January, as well as a follow-up to the Rio+20 conference in June and the ‘achieving sustainable energy for all in Small Island Developing States’ ministerial meeting in Barbados in May.

The communiqué invites IRENA to establish a global renewable energy islands network (GREIN) as a platform for sharing knowledge, best practice, challenges and lessons learnt while seeking innovative solutions.

GREIN will also help assess country potential, build capacity, formulate business cases for renewables deployment involving the private sector and civil society while identifying available finance as well as new ideas for innovative financing mechanisms.

In addition, the network will develop methodologies for integrating renewables into sustainable tourism, water management, transport, and other industries and services.

IRENA’s Kenyan director-general Adnan Amin told the 120 delegates that “we have confirmed the enormous potential for renewables in small island developing states as well as for developed island countries, not to mention coastal countries with remote, energy-deprived islands of their own. Ambitious policy targets appear increasingly attainable because of great strides forward in technology and cost-effectiveness.

“We are laying the groundwork for a business council to bring investors – from major energy companies to innovative SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) and also financial institutions – into the discussion,” Amin added. “Academics and NGOs can also contribute to the search for practical solutions. Developed island states can do much by sharing their experience with small-island developing states that face broadly similar challenges.”

Representatives (including 15 ministers) from 26 developing Pacific, Caribbean and African developing island nations and from coastal developing states with islands reported a wide range of renewables deployment, from detailed long-term plans and ongoing activities to reach up to 100 percent renewables, to admissions of very low deployment and no firm goals or plans yet. More

Malta Comminique Download

 

At UN General Debate, small island states seek aid for growth, climate change mitigation

28 September 2012 – Small island states took to the podium of the United Nations General Assembly today to call on the international community to support their development in the face of the global economic crisis and not dismiss their needs by categorizing them as medium income, while also highlighting the threats they face from climate change and rising sea levels.

Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves

“The international community cannot ignore our plight based on a distorted calculus of middle-class status and relative prosperity, or on simplistic, even offensive, stereotypes of Caribbean paradises,” Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines told the 67th Assembly on the fourth day of its annual General Debate, at UN Headquarters in New York.

“Small, highly-indebted middle-income developing countries, like those in the Caribbean, which are very vulnerable to natural disasters and international economic convulsions; have especial concerns which the international community is obliged to address properly in partnership with the people of our region,” he said.

“This war is not a future event, it is a preset-day and ongoing battle,” Prime Minister Gonsalves said.

In the Caribbean region, the global economic and financial meltdown continues to be felt most acutely by the poor, the youth, the elderly and the vulnerable, who bear no responsibility for the rampant financial speculation, he noted, warning that the externally-imposed meltdown has produced negative or marginal growth across the Caribbean, which now faces the implications of a potential “lost decade” of development.

Small, highly-indebted middle-income developing countries, like those in the Caribbean – which are very vulnerable to natural disasters and international economic convulsions – have especial concerns which the international community is obliged to address properly in partnership with the people of our region, he said.

“We must resist the temptation to bury our heads in the shifting sands of meaningless resolutions while we studiously disregard our imperative quest for a unifying principle and purpose,” Prime Minister Gonsalves stated, warning that avoidance of fundamental questions “threatens to set our Assembly adrift and rudderless, shirking responsibility and afraid of action.”

Within the UN system, the current budget for peacekeeping dwarfs the resources allocated for development “even as we recognise that most conflict is rooted in underdevelopment,” he stressed, noting that age-old pledges of aid have been skirted and their fulfilment delayed by States citing their own struggles with the global economic fallout.

Prime Minister Gonsalves’ concerns were echoed by his Caribbean neighbour, Prime Minister Kenny Anthony of Saint Lucia, who warned that small states are forced to become even more indebted as they have to borrow to replace infrastructure such as roads and bridges, without which their economies would face further contraction.

“The Caribbean Community has continuously made the point that many small states are deceptively classed as ‘middle income’ on the mere basis of per capita,” he said. “A country the size of Saint Lucia, with the vulnerabilities that we face, should not be subjected to such a measuring tool for determining whether a state can stand on its own.”

Small states require some fairness and balance in the world economic space, he noted, adding: “We look to the future of a United Nations and other global institutions moving towards becoming more targeted and differentiated in their interventions and policies.”

In his remarks, the Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis, Denzil Douglas, also underscored the “mammoth challenges and difficulties” confronting small island state and the need for greater consideration.

“In no way of our making, the global economic crisis has severely complicated the task of governance in highly indebted middle income nations like mine,” he said. “We continue to face significant challenges especially in relation to the attainment of economic growth in the context of a very sluggish and uncertain global economy.”

The Caribbean leaders called for an end to the United State embargo on Cuba. Prime Minister Gonsalves said Cuba could in no way be labelled as state sponsor of terrorism since it neither supports nor harbours terrorists of any type, while Prime Minister Anthony attributed the embargo to political retribution. Prime Minister Douglas said the embargo's continued denial of certain medical treatments to the Cuban people is simply “unconscionable.”

They also underscored the need for urgent action in the war against climate change and rising seas.

“This war is not a future event, it is a preset-day and ongoing battle,” Prime Minister Gonsalves said. “As all of you in this Assembly are aware, it is a war that we are currently losing. The survival of our islands is at stake, and the responsibility for immediate change lies undisputedly with those whose reckless pollution over generations has led us to the brink of catastrophe.”

Prime Minister Douglas referred to the “radical” climate shifts the Caribbean region had undergone in recent decades. “It is troubling that the largest contributors of greenhouse gases are still not taking responsibility for the increasing temperatures, rising sea levels, coastal degradation, coral reef bleaching and decimation, infrastructural damage, and loss of lives that their actions have wrought,” he said.

“The physical, mental and financial burden that other countries' energy usage has inflicted on countries like mine has been enormous - plunging us deeper into debt, and severely frustrating our efforts to meet our Millennium Development Goals (MDGs),” he added, referring to the UN targets of slashing extreme hunger and poverty, maternal and infant mortality, diseases and lack of access to education and medical services, all by 2015.

Their concerns were echoed by fellow small island states located on the other side of the world, in the South Pacific.

“Our challenge to the international community, in particular developed countries, is to take the bold measures necessary to reduce emissions of all greenhouse gases to levels that ensure a viable and meaningful future for SIDS (Small Island Developing States),” Lord Tu’ivakano, the Prime Minister of Tonga, told the Assembly.

“To safeguard the survival of the smallest and most vulnerable States amongst us is to safeguard a viable future for all States. A rising tide may lift all boats but it will drown us all,” he added, stressing the need for sustainable development, and strict stewardship of the world’s ocean resources.

“As custodians of the ocean and its living and non-living resources, we have long appreciated that the health of the oceans is critical to maintaining a staple source of sustenance and livelihood for island communities,” he said.

In his address to the General Debate, a fellow Pacific island leader, Samoa’s Prime Minister Tuila’epa Fatialofa Lupesoliai Sailele Malielegaoi, called climate change “the world's most urgent problem requiring a decisive global response.”

“It is a challenge that should unite us, not divide us,” he said. “Entrenched positions devoid of today's realties and in pursuit of unrelated: agendas do not have a role in our collective effort. All countries are impacted by climate change in varying degrees. No one should stay detached and unconcerned to our common plight.” More

 

Climate Change and the Use of Renewable Energy in Small Island States

On 5 November,Ilan Kelman and Many Strong Voices http://www.manystrongvoices.org/ colleagues will be part of an 'expert chat' on 'Climate Change and the Use of Renewable Energy in Small Island States' http://dl.klima2012.de/chat/chat01.pdf at the e-conference Climate 2012 http://www.climate2012.de/en/start on "Climate Change, Island States and Sustainable Technologies" 5-9 November 2012.

Register and participate online. More

 

At UN debate, Kiribati’s President urges increased efforts to mitigate impact of rising seas

26 September 2012 – The President of Kiribati, a mainly low-lying Pacific archipelago that is one of the states most threatened by rising seas, today appealed to the United Nations to step up efforts to curb global greenhouse emissions and help in mitigation measures, including possible migration.

President Anote Tong

“We are grateful that the General Assembly agrees that climate change is a matter warranting the attention of the Security Council,” Kiribati’s President Anote Tong told the UN General Assembly on the second day of its annual General Debate, at UN Headquarters in New York.

“I applaud the commitment of our Secretary-General to this particular security threat, but he needs the support of all nations to take the necessary action to address it. We must step up our collective efforts to mitigate global greenhouse gas emissions,” he said.

The Kiribati leader called on development partners to provide resources and technology to enable his country to deal with the current impacts of climate change and prepare for an uncertain future.

“While we are taking adaptation measures to ensure that Kiribati remains habitable for as long as possible, we are also preparing for a future where our islands may no longer be able top sustain our population,” President Tong stated in his speech.

“We are looking to improve the skills of our people to a level where they are able to compete for jobs in the international labour market. We want our people to have the option to migrate with dignity should the time come that migration is unavoidable. And all the science is telling us that it is just a matter of time,” he said.

He added, “I frequently find myself watching my grandchildren and wondering what sort of a future we are leaving them.”

President Tong is one of scores of world leaders and other high-level officials presenting their views and comments on issues of individual national and international relevance at the Assembly’s General Debate, which ends on 1 October. More

Full text of President Anote Tong's UN address Click Here PDF

 

Small islands push for new energy

Most islands are well endowed with one or more renewable energy source — rivers, waterfalls, wind, sunshine, biomass, wave power, geothermal deposits — yet virtually all remain heavily or entirely reliant on imported fossil fuels to produce electricity and power transport.

With rising oil prices, fuel import bills now represent up to 20 percent of annual imports of 34 of the 38 small island developing states (SIDS), between 5 percent to 20 percent of their Gross Domestic Product — and even up to 15 percent of the total import bills of many of the European Union’s 286 islands.

Action advocated under “The Malta Communiqué On Accelerating Renewable Energy Uptake For Islands” adopted by a 50-nation two-day conference that ended here last week will hopefully slash, in some cases eliminate, reliance on fossil fuels and related pollution, while increasing energy security, employment as well as economic and social wellbeing.

“The Renewables and Islands Global Summit” in Malta was co-hosted by the 100-nation International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) based in Abu Dhabi and by the government of Malta — a 316 sq km Mediterranean island republic of 410,000 inhabitants, and EU’s smallest member state.

The Malta Communiqué On Accelerating Renewable Energy Uptake For Islands will hopefully help slash or eliminate reliance on fossil fuels, while increasing energy security, employment as well as economic and social wellbeing.

The meeting represents a key milestone in IRENA’s initiative on renewables and islands launched by its governing council last January, as well as a follow-up to the Rio+20 conference in June and the “Achieving Sustainable Energy for All in Small Island Developing States” ministerial meeting in Barbados in May.

The communiqué invites IRENA to establish a global renewable energy islands network (GREIN) as a platform for sharing knowledge, best practice, challenges and lessons learnt while seeking innovative solutions.

GREIN will also help assess country potential, build capacity, formulate business cases for renewables deployment involving the private sector and civil society while identifying available finance as well as new ideas for innovative financing mechanisms.

In addition, the network will develop methodologies for integrating renewables into sustainable tourism, water management, transport, and other industries and services.

IRENA’s Kenyan director-general Adnan Amin told the 120 delegates that “we have confirmed the enormous potential for renewables in small island developing states as well as for developed island countries, not to mention coastal countries with remote, energy-deprived islands of their own. Ambitious policy targets appear increasingly attainable because of great strides forward in technology and cost-effectiveness.

“We are laying the groundwork for a business council to bring investors — from major energy companies to innovative SMEs (small- and medium-sized enterprises) and also financial institutions — into the discussion,” Amin added. “Academics and NGOs can also contribute to the search for practical solutions. Developed island states can do much by sharing their experience with small-island developing states that face broadly similar challenges.”

Representatives (including 15 ministers) from 26 developing Pacific, Caribbean and African developing island nations and from coastal developing states with islands reported a wide range of renewables deployment, from detailed long-term plans and ongoing activities to reach up to 100 percent renewables, to admissions of very low deployment and no firm goals or plans yet. More

 

Caribbean Challenge Initiative (CCI) GLISPA

Caribbean Challenge Initiative so far involves eight island nations — The Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Lucia, Grenada, Antigua and Barbuda as well as Saint Kitts and Nevis. Five countries have made formal commitments to protect at least 20% of the near-shore marine and coastal habitats by 2020. All eight countries are participating in the Caribbean Biodiversity Fund that will provide sustainable financing for their national protected areas. More

 

 

Apply for a 2013 Ashden Award

Apply for a 2013 Ashden Award

Are you breaking new ground in increasing access to sustainable energy, saving energy or generating renewable forms of energy supply? Are you encouraging low-carbon living or more sustainable travel? If so, we want to hear from you!

A significant prize - and much more

Next June, up to 13 winners will be presented with a cash prize of £5,000 to £40,000 at a prestigious ceremony in London. But winning an Ashden Award is about more than the prize money. If you are successful we’ll also support you to develop your work further, help you build your profile and gain access to new networks.

What are we looking for?

For our UK and International Awards we are looking for sustainable energy pioneers that are making progress in transforming people's lives through sustainable energy, saving energy, generating renewable energy or promoting behaviour change.

Applications for our School Awards must be able to demonstrate success in making their buildings and grounds more sustainable as well as integrating sustainability into their culture and curriculum.

For our Eurostar Ashden Awards for Sustainable Travel we are looking for schemes that are encouraging more sustainable forms of travel in Belgium, France or the UK.

Follow one of the links below to find out more about the eligibility criteria for each award and how to apply.

> UK Ashden Awards

> International Ashden Awards

> Eurostar Ashden Awards for Sustainable Travel

> Ashden School Awards

> Small Island Developing States Awards

 

The Very Real Threat of Sea-level Rise to the United States

Until the very end of the Republican Convention in Tampa, the issue of climate change was a no-show. Even the Democrats have not made as much of this issue as many in the scientific community would like.

But the issue did come up when Governor Romney gave his nomination acceptance speech. He could have made neutral comments about climate change or the environment. He could have ignored the issue completely as the Republican platform does. But in fact, Romney mocked the issue, mocked the threat to the United States and the planet, and mocked efforts to protect the environment, using the issue of sea-level rise as a laugh and applause line.

Climate change is no laughing matter. Uncontrolled, human-caused climate change is a real threat to the United States economy, hundreds of millions of Americans, and their local communities. The increasingly extreme weather of the past few years is a sign of things to come: rising temperatures, changing rainfall patterns, increasing storm and drought frequency and intensity, changing vegetation, and rapidly disappearing Arctic ice. There are plenty of remaining uncertainties -- such as the speed of the changes, their extent and severity, the costs of suffering impacts versus the costs of adapting to or preventing them -- and the scientific community continues to work hard to understand and reduce these uncertainties. But one of the most certain and devastating consequences for the United States is going to be the very climate impact that Romney chose to mock: rising seas.

Sea levels are rising for two reasons: thermal expansion and an increase in the volume of the ocean. As the planet warms, so do the oceans, and warmer water takes up more space than colder water. As ice in glaciers and the ice caps on Antarctica and Greenland melt, the volume of the oceans grows. And we already see rising sea levels. Between 1993 and the present, sea levels have been increasing an average of over 3 mm per year -- more than 50 percent faster than over the past century. Indeed, sea levels are actually rising at the upper range of model projections, and there is growing concern that scientists have conservatively underestimated the speed at which some of the massive ice volumes in Greenland may deteriorate and melt. There is so much ice on Greenland alone, that were it to melt into the oceans, sea levels would rise nearly 24 feet.

A global increase in sea level of a meter (more than three feet) by the year 2100 is now "widely accepted as a serious possibility" and even the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recommends planning for as much as 1.5 meters (nearly five feet).

What is even clearer are the risks to our populations and economies posed by this threat. The United States has a vast and vulnerable coastline. More than half the nation's population lives in coastal counties. Nearly four million people already live within three feet of today's high-tide level, with hundreds of billions of dollars of infrastructure at risk. Residential structures in today's 100‐year floodplain of just New York City and Nassau, Suffolk, and Westchester counties already have a total estimated value of over $125 billion. New York's Sea Level Rise Task Force identified a wide range of growing threats associated with sea-level rise, including storm surges, inundation and flooding, rising water tables, salt water intrusion to groundwater, and coastal erosion. More

 

An Inside Look at the First Village Forced to Relocate Due to Climate Change

For the most part, many people still experience climate change on an academic rather than a personal level. But for the villagers of Vunidogoloa on Vanua Levu, Fiji’s second largest island, climate change has become a daily intrusion on every day life.

Photo: Brook Meakins

The villagers of Vunidogoloa are currently relocating to drier and higher land because of sea level rise, erosion, and intensifying floods. I had the opportunity to visit the village midway through this process – one of the very first village relocation projects in the world – and spoke with people young and old about their upcoming move.

Throughout 2012, these Fijian villagers have been in the process of moving from their current home village – a tract of land overlooking Natawa Bay, the largest bay in the South Pacific, to their new home which they named Kenani, Fijian for Canaan, the biblical “promised land.” Last month, I visited both sites - the seaside village that is now uninhabitable and the mountaintop site of their intended new home. I talked with the villagers about their feelings, hopes, and fears, as they become one of the very first villages in the world to be wholly relocated as a result of the effects of climate change.

An increasing number of coastal communities around the world are faced with the issue of relocation because of sea level rise, among other environmental and climate change related issues. In most cases, these individuals and their communities contribute very little to anthropogenic climate change, yet they are feeling the proverbial heat in a much more profound and potentially devastating way. Some villagers, like those in Vunidogoloa and their promised land, eagerly and proactively participate in the process of relocation. But for others, everything that comes along with relocation, including property rights issues, a lack of finances, the inevitable culture loss, and a host of other complex problems, is a much more traumatic topic. Scientists and academics predict that this phenomenon will worsen as global emissions rise and polar ice continues to melt. There is no time like the present to learn from those villages around the globe that are testing the waters of relocation. More

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Small Islands Push for New Energy

ST. JULIAN’S, Malta, Sep 14 2012 (IPS) - Most islands are well endowed with one or more renewable energy source – rivers, waterfalls, wind, sunshine, biomass, wave power, geothermal deposits – yet virtually all remain heavily or entirely reliant on imported fossil fuels to produce electricity and power transport.

With rising oil prices, fuel import bills now represent up to 20 percent of annual imports of 34 of the 38 small island developing states (SIDS), between 5 percent to 20 percent of their Gross Domestic Product – and even up to 15 percent of the total import bills of many of the European Union’s 286 islands.

Action advocated under ‘The Malta Communiqué On Accelerating Renewable Energy Uptake For Islands’ adopted by a 50-nation two-day conference that ended here last week will hopefully slash, in some cases eliminate, reliance on fossils and related pollution, while increasing energy security, employment as well as economic and social wellbeing.

‘The Renewables and Islands Global Summit’ in Malta was co-hosted by the 100-nation International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) based in Abu Dhabi and by the government of Malta – a 316 sq km Mediterranean island republic of 410,000 inhabitants, and EU’s smallest member state.

With rising oil prices, fuel import bills now represent up to 20 percent of annual imports of 34 of the 38 small island developing states (SIDS),

The meeting represents a key milestone in IRENA’s initiative on renewables and islands launched by its governing council last January, as well as a follow-up to the Rio+20 conference in June and the ‘achieving sustainable energy for all in Small Island Developing States’ ministerial meeting in Barbados in May.

The communiqué invites IRENA to establish a global renewable energy islands network (GREIN) as a platform for sharing knowledge, best practice, challenges and lessons learnt while seeking innovative solutions.

GREIN will also help assess country potential, build capacity, formulate business cases for renewables deployment involving the private sector and civil society while identifying available finance as well as new ideas for innovative financing mechanisms.

In addition, the network will develop methodologies for integrating renewables into sustainable tourism, water management, transport, and other industries and services.

IRENA’s Kenyan director-general Adnan Amin told the 120 delegates that “we have confirmed the enormous potential for renewables in small island developing states as well as for developed island countries, not to mention coastal countries with remote, energy-deprived islands of their own. Ambitious policy targets appear increasingly attainable because of great strides forward in technology and cost-effectiveness.

“We are laying the groundwork for a business council to bring investors – from major energy companies to innovative SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) and also financial institutions – into the discussion,” Amin added. “Academics and NGOs can also contribute to the search for practical solutions. Developed island states can do much by sharing their experience with small-island developing states that face broadly similar challenges.”

Representatives (including 15 ministers) from 26 developing Pacific, Caribbean and African developing island nations and from coastal developing states with islands reported a wide range of renewables deployment, from detailed long-term plans and ongoing activities to reach up to 100 percent renewables, to admissions of very low deployment and no firm goals or plans yet.

West African Cape Verde, a 10-island 4,033 sq km archipelago with 491,000 inhabitants, has started working towards 100 percent, then possibly 300 percent renewables, according to José Brito, senior adviser to Cape Verde’s Prime Minister, José Maria Neves. Surplus energy remaining from meeting domestic needs (including seawater desalination) could either be stored or exported, Brito said. Cape Verde aims to become a renewables training hub for Africa.

Dominica in the East Caribbean (71,000 inhabitants, 754 sq km) could also become a net energy exporter, Crispin Grégoire, its former ambassador to the UN and now a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) official in charge of Caribbean issues told IPS.

“With 325 rivers and mountainous terrain, we have huge hydroelectric potential. Moreover, Iceland and the EU are helping assess our extensive geothermal resources. We could export surplus electricity by interconnector seabed cable to Guadelupe and Martinique, each just 60 km away. We could also attract high-tech industries to use our surplus power.” More

 

The royal visit to Tuvalu focuses on climate change

The Diamond Jubilee Royal Tour of the Pacific moves to Tuvalu tomorrow when Prince William and his wife Kate will be carried from their aircraft on multi-coloured throne chairs.

The visit will focus world attention on climate change as Tuvalu is at the forefront of small island nations already feeling the effects of rising sea levels.

But the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will not have a chance to talk to Non-government organisations in Tuvalu working on keeping back the sea. More

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For those who are not familiar with the plight of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) here is Ian Fry, the Tuvalu delegate to the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, making an impassioned plea for legally binding agreements to be made by world leaders to save his nation and other low-lying island states. He notes that is is "an irony of the modern world that the fate of the world is being determined by some senators in the US Congress," and suggests that for President Obama to earn his Nobel Peace Prize by addressing the greatest threat to humanity and to security: climate change. Tearfully, he concludes: "The fate of my country rests in your hands."

 

Balancing Finance and Technology Key to Climate-Resilient Future

Bangkok, 13 September 2012 - Experts from 36 countries called on the international community to build the fundamental infrastructure that will help developing countries move to a low-carbon future at the end of a workshop run under the Technology Need Assessment Project (TNA).

"People in developing countries must be able to plan their low-carbon and more climate-resilient futures, and to be able to assess precisely which activities need to be supported with finance and technology by developed countries," said Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

"This workshop has gone a long way to determine precisely what is required," she added. "Governments now need to urgently press ahead with implementing what they decided in Durban last year and in Cancun in 2010, and to put the finishing touches to the new Technology Mechanism in Doha at the end of the year.

The three-day global experience-sharing workshop in Bangkok was run under the auspices of the TNA, which is implemented by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF).

Participating countries acknowledged the significance of the TNA project in engaging more stakeholders in the global response to combat climate change and take concrete actions. However, funding of proposed actions remains a major concern.

"The workshop has raised a number of important points which needs to be addressed in the way forward," said Mark Radka, Head of Energy Branch, UNEP. "The request for capacity building and access to finance being two important points, UNEP's support does not stop with the TNA process. If called upon, we will work with governments and other relevant partners to support national processes to spearhead the transition to a green economy."

Participating countries also called on the Technical Executive Committee to work with them to create synergies between international mitigation and adaptation policy actions such as Low Emission Development Strategies (LEDS) and nationally appropriate mitigation actions (NAMAs) to prevent future TNAs ending up as stand-alone initiatives. More

 

Scientists Seek Strategy to Convey Seriousness of Sea-Level Rise

LA JOLLA, Calif. — Sea-level rise threatens cities around the world, and academic leaders must talk about it differently to help people grasp the potential dangers and costs, climate experts said last week.

Researchers must detail effects at the local and regional levels, members of the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU) Sustainability and Climate Change Program said as they met at the University of California, San Diego. They need to talk shorter time windows, mentioning impacts in 2050 as well as in 2100. And they should drive home to people that actions to limit climate change can help protect their children and grandchildren from huge economic and social impacts.

“Sea-level rise is not a problem that’s going away,” said Dan Cayan, a climate researcher at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego. “In some sense, this is an important investment. This is a multigenerational issue.”

Climate researchers from around the world gathered for three days at UC San Diego to share information and formulate strategies. They discussed the importance of talking about sea-level rise and climate change as they brainstormed what advice they should give to university presidents. During that session, some of the APRU members urged more of an activist role, saying too much time already has been lost.

“People who don’t believe climate change is real, and sea-level rise is real, are really few and far between,” said Bernard Minster, a UC San Diego professor and Scripps researcher.

The conference took place just after sea-level rise and climate change happened to surface on the national stage. At the Republican National Convention, presidential nominee Mitt Romney in his acceptance speech derided President Obama’s position on the issues.

“President Obama promised to begin to slow the rise of the oceans,” Romney said as some in the audience snickered, “and to heal the planet. My promise is to help you and your family.”

Obama in his speech at the Democratic National Convention said that “climate change is not a hoax.”

“More droughts and floods and wildfires are not a joke. They are a threat to our children’s future. And in this election, you can do something about it.” More

 

Ecosystem-Based Adaptation to Climate Change in Caribbean Small Island Developing States

Ecosystem-Based Adaptation to Climate Change in Caribbean Small Island Developing States: Integrating Local and External Knowledge

Abstract: Caribbean Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are vulnerable to climate change impacts including sea level rise, invasive species, ocean acidification, changes in rainfall patterns, increased temperatures, and changing hazard regimes including hurricanes, floods and drought. Given high dependencies in Caribbean SIDS on natural resources for livelihoods, a focus on ecosystems and their interaction with people is essential for climate change adaptation. Increasingly, ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) approaches are being highlighted as an approach to address climate change impacts. Specifically, EbA encourages the use of local and external knowledge about ecosystems to identify climate change adaptation approaches. This paper critically reviews EbA in Caribbean SIDS, focusing on the need to integrate local and external knowledge. An analysis of current EbA in the Caribbean is undertaken alongside a review of methodologies used to integrate local and external expertise for EbA. Finally key gaps, lessons learnt and suggested ways forward for EbA in Caribbean SIDS and potentially further afield are identified. Download

Many Strong Voices Releases Paper on Ecosystem-based Climate Change Adaptation in Caribbean SIDS

August 2012: Many Strong Voices (MSV), a collaboration between coastal communities in the Arctic and small island developing States (SIDS) that seeks to promote action on climate change, has released a paper titled “Ecosystem-Based Adaptation to Climate Change in Caribbean Small Island Developing States: Integrating Local and External Knowledge.”

The paper underscores that Caribbean SIDS are vulnerable to climate change impacts, such as: sea level rise; invasive species; ocean acidification; changes in rainfall patterns; increased temperatures; and changing hazard regimes including hurricanes, floods and drought. Noting the high dependency in Caribbean SIDS on natural resources for livelihoods, it calls for a focus on ecosystems and their interaction with people in order to adapt to climate change.

The paper reviews ecosystem-based adaptation to climate change in Caribbean SIDS, focusing on the integration of local and external knowledge. It highlights key gaps, lessons learned and suggests ways forward for ecosystem-based adaptation in Caribbean SIDS, and potentially further afield.

Partners of MSV include: the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC); the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP); the UN Environment Programme (UNEP)/GRID-Arendal; the Organization of American States, Department of Sustainable Development (OAS DSD); UNEP Regional Office for North America (RONA); the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Secretariat (UNFCCC); as well as NGOs and indigenous peoples organizations. [Publication: Ecosystem-based Adaptation to Climate Change in Caribean SIDS. More

 

C'wealth conference on small states in London

London: The Commonwealth Secretariat has convened a global conference here to discuss the unique development challenges of small states in the group and explore policy options to address them.

Thirty-two of the Commonwealth's 54 member countries are small states, with populations of less than 1.5 million.

They share similar challenges such as remoteness, susceptibility to exogenous shocks and high debt burdens, a press release from the Secretariat said.

The Second Global Biennial Conference on Small States will take place on September 17-18 at the headquarters of the Commonwealth in London.

The meeting is a follow-up to the inaugural 2010 conference, whose outcomes Commonwealth Heads of Government endorsed in Perth, Australia, in October 2011.

Besides ministers and officials from small states, the conference will also be attended by representatives from G20 countries, and international organisations like the World Bank and La Francophonie.

Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma said:"The Commonwealth has always exercised a special responsibility to protect and promote the interests of small states in the pursuit of their social, environmental and economic development goals. We are convening this global conference in that spirit."

The key themes for discussion during the conference include: green growth in small states; tourism development and local economy linkages; migration and development; building resilience to external shocks; and enhancing growth through regional integration, the release added.

Conference outcomes are expected to feed into major international meetings, including the Small States Forum that will take place in the wings of the World Bank/International Monetary Fund Annual Meetings in October 2012.

They will likely also impact on preparations for the UN 2014 Conference on the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States, the release said. More