Climate change hurting SIDS

Ethics in climate change
Michelle Loubon
Published: 15 Jul 2010

Sea, sand, sunshine and sightseeing: these are chief among the attractions in the Caribbean. But there is a more sinister side—storms, hurricanes, floods and earthquake can strike and unleash untold destruction. For example, Haiti, where 200 000 people died after a massive earthquake struck Port-au-Prince on January 12. Cognisant of these drastic weather patterns, Dr Ralph Gonsalves, visiting St Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister, said climate change is “the Caribbean’s region’s most long term existential threat.”

He was delivering the feature address at last Thursday’s forum hosted by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) on small island developing states, with special emphasis on the Caribbean—The Challenges for International Development Co-operation in the 2010s, at Hilton Trinidad, St Ann’s. Forty-three countries qualify as SIDS (small island developing states). “Climate change is our region’s greatest long term existential threat. Small island states, particularly those in the Pacific and Indian Ocean, may simply cease to exist unless carbon emissions are arrested and reversed. “However, short of dramatically disappearing, climate change also poses a massive developmental challenge in the short- and medium-term.” Among the negative environmental factors were coral bleaching, beach erosion, sea level rising and violent and unpredictable hurricanes. When nature strikes, Gonsalves noted the tourism industries—mainstays of several economies—was destroyed. Hitting out at hurricanes, Gonsalves said: “Unpredictable hurricanes threaten to overturn our reliance on and investment in tourism as the engine of growth and development.” He said in mountainous states like his beloved St Vincent, 80 per cent of the infrastructure is located along the coastline. While the stretch of neverending beach looks picture perfect on postcards, its beauty can suddenly be flayed since “it lies within a few feet of the inexorably rising seas.” In the aftermath of destruction, Gonsalves said the beautification and mopping up operations place a huge debt on the economy. “The cost of adaptation and preservation of our infrastructural developments are daunting, and beyond our individual capacity to address.” Individual states cannot surmount the damage on their own. “With climate change negotiations currently stalled by the reluctance of industrialised nations to accept their historical responsibilities, it is the blameless SIDS that are most immediately threatened.” To date, Gonzalves claimed since UNESCO contributed US$4.6 million to the development of SIDs, so they could not claim “donor fatigue.” UNESCO draft on climate change On the flip side, Gonsalves lauded UNESCO for its universal draft declaration on ethics in climate change. “Ethical considerations must be placed at the centre of any international outcomes on climate change and its related challenges, such as migration, pollution and social displacement (homelessness).” He said sustainable development could be effected by an integrated and strategic approach for SIDs rather than the implementation of discrete projects on an ad hoc basis. Without mincing words, he said: “We need concrete action and results.” “Having the right systems in place to limit the effects of natural disasters is clearly cost-effective compared to the costs of aiding a devastated country like Haiti, which was totally unprepared for such a catastrophe.” He said the sustainable development should be a foundation in all UNESCO’s sectors. Borrowing a line from poet John Donne, he left a kernel of wisdom from Meditation with the developed and SIDS stakeholders. He said: “No man is an island, Every man is a part of the continent, A part of the main.” SIDs take action Gonsalves also urged the SIDS to adopt a proactive approach by co-operating. “This could take the form of co operation among Caribbean SIDS, south-south co-operation, including SIDS-SIDS, and north/south co-operation and the building of alliances with the multilateral and bilateral donor communities.” To compound it, he said SIDS were already struggling with millennium development goals (MDGs). “MDGs should remain the same until 2015.” Education, the key to resolving many of the challenges, should be maintained as the major priority for UNESCO. “It is the principal instrument for fighting poverty and our investment in the future of SIDS.” Despite the tides of globalisation and climate change, he said SIDS have to be reminded of the political aspects of our islandness, “which set us apart in a sea of great power indifference and the benign neglect of institutional apparatuses.” “Economic development and growth, in this global context, becomes an almost adversarial game between entrenched interests and the basic development rights of our tiny Caribbean states.” Strengthening capacities for disaster management Gonsalves outlined some proposals: • The region needs to strengthen its early warning system (EWS) (lauded the International Oceanographic Commission for its input). • Need for training and upgrading the Caribbean Sea level network for tsunami warning purposes. • It would cost US$1 million for four years covering equipment, maintenance, training and fellowships. • Urges UNESCO to create a special account to appeal for donors and accelerate the process. • Urges international community to contribute to the fund. • Strengthen public-private sector partnerships for sustainable development, including capacity building and best practices. • He noted efforts to diversify post-banana economies through expansion into financial services also seems to have offended development partners. Gonsalves identified the OECD—which does not contain a single Caribbean member state—as moving the required regulatory goalposts on a whim. Source: http://guardian.co.tt/business/business-guardian/2010/07/15/climate-change-hurting-sids