Earth Today | AOSIS shares COP28 needs list
Published:Thursday | September 28, 2023 | 12:08 AM
SMALL ISLAND developing states recently took their needs list for priority actions to safeguard their climate security at the upcoming climate change conference (COP28) global.
Topping the list is enhanced access to financing and the implementation of the Multidimensional Vulnerability Index (MVI).
The MVI, the development and implementation of which the United Nations has been working with SIDS, is described as a tool to help small islands secure, among other things, concessionary financing to survive the climate crisis, improve national level planning, debt servicing, and compensation schemes. It has also been championed as being able to provide a better measurement for ecological and economic vulnerability for inclusive sustainable development.
The needs were the subject of discussion at the Alliance of Small Island Developing States (AOSIS) Leaders Meeting, hosted on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly on September 22 in New York.
“Small island developing states are at the centre of a storm of global problems you have done almost nothing to create,” said the UN Secretary General António Guterres in a media release from AOSIS on the meeting.
“We need global action to end these crises. Small island states do not lack ambition, they lack finance. Developed countries must deliver: honouring the promise of $100 billion US dollars a year; replenishing the Green Climate Fund; and delivering a roadmap to double adaptation finance by 2025,” he added.
Fiamē Naomi Mata’afa, prime minister of Samoa and AOSIS Chair, noted the need for continued coordinated and collaborative actions in order to help assure SIDS of success in their effort to secure resilience.
“As small island developing states, we must acknowledge that despite our unwavering dedication, we grapple with enduring obstacles that have impeded our progress throughout the last decade,” she noted.
“Our leadership and unity are critical at this global juncture. We must leverage our collective strengths and ensure that we are treated with respect, equity and fairness as the world looks towards our collective future,” the AOSIS added.
COP28 is scheduled for November 28 to December 12 in United Arab Emirates where world leaders will meet for negotiations and decision-making on climate change. It is also to see the participation of civil society organisations and other stakeholders, including communities on the frontline of the climate crisis and indigenous peoples.
According to information out of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, among the issues to be looked at are solutions that require scaled up actions this decade in order to “limit warming to 1.5 degrees, build resilience, and mobilise finance at scale”.