ST. JOHN’S, Antigua, CMC—Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne remains optimistic that the outcome of the Fourth International Conference on Small Island Developing States (SIDS4), which will be held here later this month, will provide the impetus for “human survivability and protecting our planet.”
The May 27-30 summit will focus on “charting the course toward resilient prosperity” by assessing SIDS’ ability to reach the ambitious United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
In an interview with UN News, Prime Minister Browne said he hopes the conference will help formulate strategies to mitigate climate change, crushing debt, and address other vital issues that may stunt small island development.
He defended his country’s decision to host the event, saying, “The issue of human development is significant for us, and we’re now taking on the leadership of SIDS to help SIDS achieve resilient prosperity.
“We have had to contend with several challenges during the last two decades, especially in which we have seen [many] exogenous shocks decimating our economies and damaging our infrastructure, buildings, and homes.
“Fundamentally, we want to make sure that we improve the living standards of people living in SIDS to ensure sustainability so that these countries are not as susceptible to the impact of these climate shocks.”
Browne said that, evidently, this cannot be done alone because SIDS has very limited financial and human resources. “So we will be galvanizing support from various stakeholders to make sure that we can raise enough resources to help us adapt and mitigate the effects of climate change while building over time more prosperous communities so that people can enjoy acceptable living standards.”
When asked about the main barriers to successful climate adaptation in Antigua and Barbuda and for SIDS generally, Prime Minister Browne said the key issues are funding and technology. “We don’t have access to some of the available cutting-edge technologies primarily because we don’t have the funding. That is why we continue to advocate for increased funding for SIDS, adaptation mitigation, and loss and damage.”
SIDS has been pushing to establish the loss and damage fund at various Conference of the Parties (COP).
“We have made some headway within the last COP, and I’m hoping that by the next COP later this year, we will have the operationalization of funds that will start to be made available to these SIDS so that they can acquire the technologies and also reduce their reliance on fossil fuels and to reduce their carbon footprint – to have enough funding to build out more resilient socioeconomic infrastructure so that future storms will not be as impactful as in the past.”
He asked whether he could imagine a low-carbon future for Antigua and Barbud and whether this could be a reality by 2030, and the prime minister said that a low-carbon future is imperative for his Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country.
“The vagaries and the instability associated with fossil fuel prices have created severe challenges for us. In the case of Antigua and Barbuda, we’re moving away from fossil fuels and transitioning to green technologies, including solar and wind.
“We have even utilized [liquefied natural gas] as a transition fuel as we seek to reduce our carbon footprint and to have it reduced by about 30 percent within the next few years, 50 percent by 2030, and ultimately to become carbon neutral by about 2040.”
Prime Minister Browne said small States, including Antigua and Barbuda, have to lead by example. He said making that transition is important to encourage the large users of fossil fuels, those who use fossil fuels profligately, to follow our lead and reduce emissions because, ultimately, the issue of the use of fossil fuels goes beyond the issue of small States.
“It’s about human survivability and protecting our planet, and this is where we need global collaboration and cooperation to ensure that we all commit to reducing emissions.”
Prime Minister Browne said that cooperation among SIDS goes back more than 30 years, noting that the issue of climate has been driven primarily by small States.
“We have advocated for the loss and damage fund to help us raise the necessary funding to recover from the consequences of ferocious and frequent storms and, at the same time, to help us to adapt and mitigate.
“We’ve been collaborating in terms of taking certain legal opinions into the various tribunals, including the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ).”
He reiterated the “strong collaboration” among the small states, adding, “We are doing this within our collective interests and to protect our civilization. We continue to fight unrelentingly to get large polluters to reduce emissions.”
Asked what he expects the conference’s outcome, Prime Minister Browne said, “I think it will be a conference with a difference, one in which we will mobilize all the players, and we hope to have an outcome document that will chart the course towards resilient prosperity.
“I’m pretty sure that the various issues that have affected small States – issues of climate change, debt, pandemics, even the consequences of wars – will be dealt with in a very holistic way and that we will come up with strategies to help SIDS to mitigate against these issues that continue to undermine our development and ultimately make sure that we have more prosperous societies,” he added.
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