ST. JOHN’S, Antigua, CMC – The Fourth International Conference on Small Island Developing States (SIDS 4) opened here on Monday with the host Prime Minister Gaston Browne, urging delegates to ensure that the agenda for the three-day meeting “is not just a plan but a promise” to the people and environment in SIDS.
Browne, elected President of SIDS 4, said that this is a crucial gathering during unprecedented global challenges. SIDS find themselves on the frontline of a battle against a confluence of crises, none of which they caused or created.
” Our inherent vulnerabilities, characterized by small size, limited financial resources, and constrained human capital, place us at a marked disadvantage on the global stage, with the scales of equity and justice unevenly balanced against us,” he said at the Conference being held under the theme “Charting the Course Towards Resilient Prosperity.”
Browne said the large-scale polluters, whose carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions have fueled these catastrophic climate changes, bear a responsibility, an obligation of compensation, to aid in the SIDS’s quest to build resilience. Watch video
” Monumental global crises have repeatedly disrupted our journey towards sustainable development; among them, the financial meltdown of 2008 and the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, Prime Minister Browne said, noting that these events, exacerbated by the relentless climate crisis, have severely undermined our efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
He said this backdrop makes the call for urgent, multilateral support not just necessary but vital for securing our future.
” We are gathered here not merely to reiterate our challenges but to demand and enact solutions,” Browne said, noting that the global north, in particular, must honor its commitments, including the pivotal pledge of US$100 billion in climate financing, to assist with adaptation and mitigation, as well as the adequate capitalization and operationalization of the loss and damage fund.
” These are imperative investments in humanity, justice, and humanity’s equitable future. This year has been the hottest in history in practically every corner of the globe, foretelling severe impacts on our ecosystems and starkly underscoring the urgency of our predicament. To ignore this is to gamble with our collective future.”
Prime Minister Browne told the Conference that continuing with business as usual is not just negligence but an active choice that invites disaster. He said such indifference would reverberate disastrously, affecting every nation, every community, and every individual across the planet.
Prime Minister Browne said oil-producing companies, as significant contributors to the environmental challenges that now endanger everyone, must be held accountable for their pivotal role in this global climate crisis, in which they have prioritized profits over ecological sustainability.
” Isn’t it time to end fossil fuel subsidies and for these companies to be held accountable for reducing emissions and accelerating the transition to renewable energy resources to protect lives and livelihoods?
” Shouldn’t a global carbon tax be levied on these oil companies consistently enjoying supernormal profits to provide climate financing?
More than 20 world leaders, together with representatives from the private sector, civil society, academia, and youth – close to 4,000 participants in all – have gathered at the verdant conference venue in the American University of Antigua close to the capital St John’s, to tackle critical issues impacting the future of SIDS.
Under the theme Charting the course toward resilient prosperity, the four-day Conference (27-30 May) will showcase innovations and develop practical solutions to address critical SIDS-specific challenges driven by the climate emergency, spiraling debt, and health crises.
The Conference will adopt the Antigua and Barbuda Agenda for SIDS (ABAS), a renewed Declaration for Resilient Prosperity, which sets out the sustainable development aspirations of small islands over the next decade and the support required from the international community to achieve them.
Browne said that the 10-year initiative will harness the power of data to inform decision-making and ensure that the steps toward sustainable development are guided by accuracy and timeliness.
“The costs of inaction are high and growing, felt by escalated living costs as prices surge on vital imports throughout the supply chain. This strains our economies and burdens our citizens, diminishing their quality of life and stifling our developmental ambitions.”
He said on Tuesday, “We will launch our Debt Service Support Initiative (DSSI), which will call for the reform of the international financing architecture to deliver innovative, bespoke financing that goes beyond traditional concessional funding.
” The DSSI will include debt for climate swaps, insurance instruments, SDRs, green and blue bonds, and leveraging public-private partnerships to fulfill their potential in supporting our sustainable development goals.
” The adoption and use of the Multi-dimensional Vulnerability Index will also be critical to assist middle and high-income SIDS in accessing much-needed concessional financing and grants, especially during crises.”
In his address, Browne said that the world stands at a juncture where actions or failure to act will dictate the fate of SIDS and the legacy left for future generations.
“We must act now, not tomorrow, but today, with conviction and unyielding resolve. The major contributors to climate change have failed to meet their obligations to mitigate its effects, causing significant harm to SIDS and our planet in general.”
Browne said that this is why, together with the then prime minister of Tuvalu, he established the Commission of Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law (COSIS) at COP26 in 2021 to seek climate justice and advocate for our rights.
He said that, while acting on behalf of SIDS, COSIS obtained a historic and unanimous advisory opinion from ITLOS last week.
“This ruling affirmed the legal duty of all nations to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions immediately, keep temperature rise within 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, and protect and preserve the marine environment.
” It specifically held that more is needed for nations to make empty and grossly inadequate commitments under the Paris Agreement. Let me be clear: while COSIS will persist in legally safeguarding SIDS’ interests, I hope that future COPs will deliver the necessary results, averting the need for further court action.”
Browne said he urged the significant polluters to recognize and respect this historic ruling as an imperative to fulfilling their global legal obligations, particularly towards SIDS, and, accordingly, to act in our planet’s and humanity’s best interest.
” Our collective efforts over this critical decade must forge a path that addresses immediate challenges, thereby setting a foundation for long-term resilience and prosperity.
” Our path to resilient prosperity must be paved with stones of international cooperation to build capacity in disaster risk reduction, climate adaptation, digitalization, air and maritime transportation, and overall sustainable development,” Browne told the Conference.
Download video – Antigua & Barbuda PM Gaston Browne at Small Island Developing States Conference (SIDS4)
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