By Fenton Lutunatabua
This week, over 50 countries are joining forces to move the needle on what is proving to be one of the world’s most urgent needs: to overcome dependence on fossil fuels. As decision-makers gather in Santa Marta, Colombia for the First Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels, history will remember the legacy of Small Island Developing States in demanding the “impossible” and bringing global climate cooperation to this moment.
From the overhaul of global climate finance infrastructure in the Bridgetown Initiative, to the historic Advisory Opinion from the International Court of Justice, oceanic regions like the Caribbean and the Pacific have consistently pressed the international community to rise to a higher standard of climate action.
Behind these efforts is the very real fight for sovereignty and survival. For many small island states, the abstract concept of a “polycrisis” has become a dangerously tangible threat. Across oceans, these regions are currently caught in the crosshairs of three intersecting emergencies: a volatile fuel crisis driven by geopolitical conflict, a relentless climate crisis driven by fossil fuels, and a deepening affordability crisis. Together, these forces are draining trillions from household budgets and national coffers, forcing leaders to declare emergencies and everyday people to empty their pockets.
Despite their minimal contribution to global carbon emissions, island nations are among the most fossil-fuel-dependent economies in the world. The ongoing conflict in West Asia has exposed the fragility of this reliance. Most fuel used in the Pacific is benchmarked against Singapore Gasoil, which recently surged past US$180 per barrel. Because Pacific island nations must import refined fuel across vast ocean distances, the “island premium” on energy is devastating. High fuel prices bleed into every aspect of island life, with farmers paying more to transport cash crops to markets, and the inevitable cyclone recovery costing more in dollars and lives than ever before.
In countries like Tuvalu, where many citizens depend on fisheries to sustain their families, the cost of fish often serves as a signal of inflation. With fisherfolk paying more to take boats out to secure their catch, both producers and the consumers are now keeping an anxious eye on developments in the Strait of Hormuz. In Papua New Guinea, boats that typically transport remote communities to medical centres for life-saving HIV and tuberculosis treatment are now financially out of reach. Everyday people have been stripped of basic dignities, all so that the oil conglomerates thousands of miles away can safely line their pockets in the midst of a catastrophic war.
Oceans away, another island nation shackled to fossil fuels is dealing with its own energy crisis in a different way. Power cuts are not new in Cuba, but the level of precarity seen today is. Following COVID-19, the country fell into a deep economic crisis, with little money to invest in infrastructure and fewer allies willing to supply fuel. Since then, blackouts have become more frequent, along with repeated collapses of the National Electric System.
The tightening of the U.S-implemented energy blockade has “pressed on the wound.” With power cuts more widespread and lasting much longer, Cuba is now often described by its citizens as a “ghost country.” On a typical morning, the streets are empty: no children going to school, no workers commuting, no cars, no young people gathering for coffee. The people of Cuba are paying for a system designed to profit distant producers, their suffering a byproduct of a geopolitical tug-of-war.
So, what needs to be done to address these compounding crises and protect the people that populate these islands?
At this week’s conference in Santa Marta, leaders from both regions are now converging on a unified strategy: the global phase-out of fossil fuels as the only path to economic survival, and the upscaling of safe and fair renewable energy as the key to thriving island communities. As the world takes a necessary step out of the shadow of fossil fuel dependence, it is crucial that high-emitting nations begin to show the same commitment that island states have shown for decades. Those most responsible for this crisis must pay their fair share of its damages. And those most able to lead the energy transition must do so with the intention of taking the most vulnerable along with them.
The transition to renewable energy is no longer just a question of climate responsibility and environmental stewardship. The war in West Asia has shown us that access to reliable, affordable energy is intricately tied to food security, health, and economic well-being. It is time that world leaders act in line with the science – as well as the numbers. On top of what they’re already paying for oil and gas, people are losing trillions of dollars more each year to fossil fuel subsidies and climate damages.
As the climate crisis worsens and cyclones multiply across our oceans, leaders must make polluters pay and put money back in the pockets of everyday people — and ensure a livable, dignified future for islanders everywhere.
