The Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) is calling on the international community to assist vulnerable countries by closing the gap between climate promises and delivery.
This follows the release of the Synthesis Report of the International Panel of Climate Change’s (IPCC) 6th Assessment Cycle, which revealed that small island developing states will face life threatening risks if global warming is not limited to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
In a statement, they stated, “with limits to adaptation, vulnerable populations will be at risk of more acute “losses and damages” due to more severe and frequent extreme climate driven events, and slow onset events such as sea level rise, water availability, fisheries yield, agricultural production, disease spread, and economic damages.”
AOSIS said that coping with these impacts of climate change will reduce the availability of financial resources, and subsequently impede national economic growth.
The organisation is calling on the international community to close the gap and make concerted progress on the work programme for urgently scaling up mitigation ambition and implementation.
AOSIS Chair, Samoan Ambassador to the United Nations, Dr Pa’olelei Luteru said: “The women, men, and children of the Pacific and Caribbean islands are disproportionately affected by climate change… between 2010 and 2020, deaths from floods, droughts and storms were 15 times higher in highly vulnerable regions. Our people, our economies, our hopes for a better future are being constantly assailed by the actions of the big emitters.”
“While our people are being displaced from their homes and climate commitments go unmet, the fossil fuel industry is enjoying billions in profits. There can be no excuses for this continued lack of action… AOSIS is calling on the international community to close the gap and make concerted progress on the work programme for urgently scaling up mitigation ambition and implementation. The scientific evidence must be an exigent wakeup call for the international community. The forecasted challenges can certainly be avoided. Failure to act is an agreement to consign the people of small island developing states to a dismal future that we do not deserve, one that will have dire ramifications for us all,” he added.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN/PACNEWS
