Small-island states call for decisive action on climate change

MADRID, (CMC)

The Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) has called for parties at COP25 to seize the last significant window of opportunity to act decisively.

“As people living on the frontiers and in the epicentres of climate risk and vulnerability, we know precisely what ambitious action looks like and how it must be supported. We live with climate impacts daily. So small-islanders fully embraced COP25’s promise to be the COP of ambition,” said AOSIS in a statement on Sunday.

According to AOSIS, as member states contend with “the most egregious and unjust consequences of the climate emergency”, key measures of ambition have been outlined.

They include closing the mitigation gap to safeguard the Paris Agreement goal of achieving a viable 1.5-degree world, enhanced action and support for loss and damage through a fit-for-purpose Warsaw International Mechanism, and delivering a new climate finance goal.

The grouping said it welcomes that strong show of support “for our oceans. Oceans are central to the integrity of the climate system. Action must now follow swiftly”.

“But as COP25 draws to a close and islands wade through and beyond the glitzy public relations and buzzwords, we are astounded. We are appalled and dismayed at the failure to come to a decision on critical issues, the scale of inaction, ineffective processes, and some parties’ yeoman commitment to obstruction and regressive anti-science positions,” AOSIS said.

In its closing statement, AOSIS stressed that climate action is not a wish.

“It is a matter of survival, and it must be funded. We welcome the near US$90-million pledged to the Adaptation Fund at this meeting. But adapting to secure 1.5 costs vastly more.

Loss and damage is an existential issue for AOSIS member states. Several islands in the Pacific have already been inundated, lives have been lost. We all face a similar fate much sooner than previously projected. We know comprehensive climate action. We were the lone voice that raised the need for a comprehensive loss-and-damage mechanism in 1991 when the convention was being drafted.”