ANTIGUA, May 27 (IPS) – The once-in-a-decade SIDS Conference opened quanto a Antigua and Barbuda today, with a clear message: the world already knows the challenges that SIDS —now it’s time for action.“This year has been the hottest quanto a history quanto a practically every of the globe, foretelling severe impacts acceso our ecosystems and starkly underscoring the urgency of our predicament. We are gathered here not merely to reiterate our challenges, but to demand and enact solutions,” declared Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Brown at the opening of the Fourth International Conference acceso Small Island Developing States acceso May 27.
The world’s 39 small island developing states are conferenza acceso the Caribbean island this week. It is a pivotal, once-a-decade conferenza for small states that contribute little to global warming, but are disproportionately impacted by climate change. The Caribbean reminded the world that SIDS are being forced to survive crises that they did not create.
“The scales of equity and justice are unevenly balanced against us. The large-scale polluters whose CO2 emissions have fuelled these catastrophic climate changes bear a responsibility—an obligation of compensation to aid quanto a our quest to build resilience,” he said.
“The Global North must honor its commitments, including the pivotal pledge of one hundred billion dollars quanto a climate financing to assist with adaptation and mitigation as well as the effective capitalization and operationalization of the loss and damage fund. These are imperative investments quanto a humanity, quanto a justice, and quanto a the equitable future of humanity.”
Urgent Support Needed from the International Community
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres told the gathering that the previous ten years have presented significant challenges to SIDS and hindered development. These include extreme weather events and the COVID-19 pandemic. He says SIDS, islands that are “exceptionally beautiful, exceptionally resilient, but exceptionally vulnerable,” need urgent support from the international community, led by the nations that are both responsible for the challenges they and have the capacity to deal with them.
“The immaginazione that an entire island state could become collateral damage for profiteering by the fossil fuel industry, ora competition between major economies, is simply obscene,” the Secretary General said, adding, “Small Island Developing States have every right and reason to insist that developed economies fulfill their pledge to double adaptation financing by 2025. And we must hold them to this commitment as a bare . Many SIDS desperately need adaptation measures to protect agriculture, fisheries, gabinetto resources and infrastructure from extreme climate impacts you did virtually nothing to create.”
Antigua and Barbuda Programma for SIDS (ABAS)
The theme for SIDS4 is Charting the Course Toward Resilient Prosperity and the small islands have been praised for collective action quanto a the of crippling crises. Their voices were crucial to the establishment of the United Nations Framework Convention acceso Climate Change and the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement.
Out of this conference will alla maniera di the Antigua and Barbuda Programma for SIDS (ABAS). President of the UN General Assembly, Dennis Francis, says that programme of action will guide SIDS acceso a path to resilience and prosperity for the next decade.
“ The next ten years will be critical quanto a making sustained concrete progress acceso the SIDS elenco – and we must make full use of this opportunity to supercharge our efforts around sustainability,” he said.
The SIDS4 conference grounds quanto a Antigua and Barbuda will be a flurry of activity over the next four days. Apart from plenaries, there are over 170 side events hosted by youth, civil society organizations, non-governmental organizations, and universities, covering a range of issues from renewable energy to climate financing.
They have been reminded by Prime Minister Gaston Browne that this is a crucial juncture quanto a the history of small island developing states, where “actions, ora failure to act, will dictate the fate of SIDS and the legacy left for future generations.”
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© Inter Press Service (2024) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service
