By Mallika Sen, Associated Press — Monday 27 September 2021
NEW YORK (AP) — The juxtaposition at this year’s UN General Assembly was striking: the Maldives’ president entreated the world to visit his island nation as a tourist destination, then immediately pivoted to an impassioned plea for help combating climate change. “The difference between 1.5 degrees and 2 degrees is a death sentence for the Maldives,” President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih told the assembly. Tuvalu’s prime minister Kausea Natano asked: “Will Tuvalu remain a member state of The UN if it is finally submerged? Who will help us?” Antigua and Barbuda’s PM Gaston Browne declared: “Industrialised countries have an obligation to assist the states most affected by climate change because they created a problem in the first instance.” Saint Vincent and The Grenadines PM Ralph Gonsalves called the major powers’ actions thus far “pious mouthings and marginal tinkering,” saying: “On this, humanity is at the midnight hour.”
The predicament small island developing states (SIDS) face is essentially recursive: attract tourism for economic survival, which in turn contributes to climate change, which in turn destroys the very reefs and beaches that attract tourists — and by end of century, these low-lying islands could drown entirely. Tourism accounts for 8% of global CO² emissions alone. A group of Pacific island nations declared their traditional sea boundaries would remain intact even if their coastlines shrank beneath the waves. Vanuatu announced it would seek to bring climate change before the International Court of Justice. The SIDS made specific asks of the assembly including immediate and significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, debt restructuring and financial assistance to their tourism-dependent economies. Colgate University’s April Baptiste noted the SIDS’ appeals had gone ignored for years partly because these are “islands with a history of exploitation” whose full-time residents are primarily Black and brown. Solih summarised the existential stakes: “There is no guarantee of survival for any one nation in a world where the Maldives cease to exist.”