Solutions to Global Warming for the Small Islands
Because heat-trapping warming emissions from the small island states are a very small percentage of overall emissions, this region's responses to global warming include calls to other countries to limit global temperature increases and aggressive efforts to adapt to the changes that are coming.
This region, which more than 40 million people call home, consists of more than forty small island developing states spread across the Indian and Pacific oceans, the Mediterranean, and the Caribbean. These low-lying coastal nations face similar challenges in that they have small populations, limited resources, remoteness, susceptibility to natural disasters, and excessive dependence on the international community for trade.
Sea-level rise poses perhaps the greatest threat to these nations. Storm surges, flooding, erosion, and even possible inundation threaten the future occupancy of some islands. They also face significant threats to their vital infrastructure, water resources, fisheries, coral reefs, tourism income, and agricultural resources.
Small island nations have banded together in the international arena to call on other countries to limit their emissions in order to curtail the devastating impacts of climate change on their vulnerable nations. Some—including the Maldives, Tuvalu, and several Caribbean island states—are also working to go carbon neutral (zero net greenhouse gas emissions).
Learn More
- Small Island Developing States Network
- Alliance of Small Island States
- Chapter 16 of the report Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability by Working Group II of the IPCC Fourth Assessment synthesizes the vulnerabilities facing Small Islands and what steps these countries can take to adapt to climate impacts.
