Editor’s Note: Jessali is our fall 2021 intern sent to us by our good friend and colleague Dr. Simone Lucatello at the Instituto Mora in Mexico City. While here, Jessali will explore every possible facet of UN policy, including time with one or more diplomatic missions, as she pursues research interests for her thesis. Jessali took an immediate interest in the Island Innovation “Virtual Island Summit” which highlighted an extraordinary array of isses relevant to sustainable devevelopment, especially in the world’s many small island states. Her summary of what she saw and heard is below.
Between the 6th and the 12th of September, the Virtual Island Summit (VIS2021) was held with world-class speakers and more than 10,000 attendees from over 100 island communities including from the Arctic, Caribbean, Europe, Indian Ocean, Pacific Islands, South America and beyond. This conference included input from policymakers, entrepreneurs, academics, and NGO leaders who for one week shared their expertise regarding the unique threats and circumstances of island communities, sharing recommendations and examples of good practices from around the world.
One of the most noteworthy aspects of the conference is that it was a zero-carbon event thanks to the use of modern technology that facilitated participation and minimized harmful greenhouse gas emissions. Also, through a cross-section of collaborative perspectives, the Summit emphasized the need for input and partnerships from across private, public, academic and NGO sectors. Furthermore, during the sessions there was discussion of all 17 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals in addition to other topics pertinent to island communities, such as the blue economy, education, renewable energy, climate change and how to finance sustainability projects. The following is an abstract of some of the sessions we followed, their core ideas and themes.
On day 1, the session “Renewable Microgrids: An Economic, Reliable and Sustainable Energy Transition for Islands” featured discussions on how renewable energy, implemented through microgrids such as islands, can guide sustainable development resulting in a substantial reduction in both CO2 emissions and fuel imports.
On day 2, during the “Save it from the Shore – A Circular Economy for Islands” session, it was brought-up that island beaches increasingly suffer from marine plastic pollution, revealing the fact that what is carelessly thrown away in one place inevitably turns up somewhere else, adding to the pressure on island communities to find sustainable ways of dealing with others’ waste as well as their own. The objective of this session was to give an opportunity for knowledge sharing. For example, sargassum might actually be one potential solution to climate change when used as a bio stimulant or in building materials.
During day 3, the session “Forging the Future of Food: Building Security and Resilience in Agriculture,” analyzed how best to implement sustainable agricultural practices and food systems that can contribute to more resilient communities for the benefit of current and future generations. In this context, food security and food sovereignty are two important pillars of the agricultural sector where science is crucial to informing policy, ensuring that resources are used sustainably for future generations, including sustainable uses of extractive economies such as fisheries. One of the conclusions was that while islands are currently overly dependent on food imports, small countries can grow a lot of food; it is simply a matter of using land more efficiently.
The same day, the session “Climate and Environmental Justice: Island Perspectives” highlighted the importance of justice as both a core tenet of societies and a core principle of sustainability. Within the context of the climate crisis and while taking action to mitigate it, justice becomes even more important. Climate and environmental justice is supporting a global shift towards sustainability by providing equitable and inclusive solutions for all those affected by the climate crisis.
On day 4, there was a session “Innovation and the Future of Tourism” with case studies highlighting innovative and green tourism initiatives. The main pourpose was to show that sustainable tourism is a key component to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and is also needed to help the tourism industry to recover from the global pandemic. On that same day, the “Why are the UN High Seas Treaty Negotiations important to the Caribbean?” sesion highlighted this first global negotiations to address sustainable ocean policy in over 30 years, one which provides a once-in-a-generation (and perhaps final) opportunity to conserve ocean biodiversity. One of the conclusions was that if island states are to be able to continue to rely on the ocean, then we need to think about how we govern, preserve and protect the high seas. Rather than belonging to anyone, ocean areas beyond national jurisdiction should be seen as belonging to everyone. This session also provided an overview of negotiations to date, as well as highlighted the Caribbean’s role in the negotiations by leading stakeholders in the region.
On day 5, the “Pioneers of the Caribbean in Renewable Energy” session highlighted how Curaçao set the objectives and priorities for the development of an effective and sustainable energy system so as to reduce dependence on petroleum imports. Efforts are also being taken to modernize the electricity distribution structure, optimize mobility and replace the use of crude oil-based products with natural gas to facilitate the transition to a fully sustainable society. All of this answers one or more problems faced by small islands regading their high electricity costs. There is no doubt that combining tourism with renewable energy is a very important sustainability step.
During day 6, the “Breaking Echo Chambers: Innovating Inter-island Knowledge Sharing” session featured a panel discussion focused on bottlenecks in communicating information to bring about effective action. Island nations face many shared struggles against the impacts of climate change such as vulnerable coastlines, damaged ecosystems, and people on the receiving end of the impacts of global inaction. In this context, webinars provide a really good opportunity for people to break silos, abandon their echo-chambers and meet people outside their usual spaces to share knowledge and best practices.
Finally on day 7, the session “Unite Behind The SC1.5NCE – an Intergenerational Dialogue on the Future of Islands” was held. Here the SC.15NCE NOT SILENCE campaign was analyzed, including its call for governments to publicly support the IPCC 1.5C Special Report and urgently align their climate goals accordingly. This session was very fruitfull because of its intergenerational dialogue about the future of islands amidst a bevy of climate and ocean threats.
The Island Summit also included interactive sessions in various formats that imitated a traditional in-person event with digital opportunities to interact with speakers and other attendees towards creating an online community and network. Discussions of a global nature were held about climate action, the blue economy, clean energy transitions, post-pandemic recovery, island sustainability, migration, and cultural preservation. There were also “Supporting and financing climate and clean energy projects” sessions focused on specific regions, such as the Indian Ocean, the Caribbean, and Lusophone states. Potential investors were given guidance on how to invest in climate adaptation and clean energy projects in these and other regions.
In addition to the content sessions, stories were shared from the islands, such as by “Chagossian Voices”, a grassroots organization of Chagos Islanders who depicted the decades of trauma and injustice suffered by the forcibly displaced Chagossian community. During that session, Louis Elyse, a member of “Voices”, asked the international community to recognize Chagos as an independent nation. Participants also were treated to a collection of previously unseen pictures of everyday life in the 1960s and 70s taken on the Isle of Berneray in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland during the session “Fàgail Bheàrnaraigh | Leaving Berneray”.
Along with this, plenary sessions were organized at regional level and dedicated to discussions with industry leaders about how their islands are implementing the Sustainable Development Goals to meet the needs of future generations. The most common priority noted was the need for urgent action from governments and all segments of the global community to reverse the global climate crisis. Demonstrated unity was evident regarding the reality that vulnerable small island states face storms and other extreme weather events with limited capacity. “It is not a matter of money, but a matter of the continuity of our existence,” noted Ambassador Walton Aubrey Webson from Antigua & Barbuda. In a similar vein, Philip J. Pierce, Prime Minister of Saint Lucia reminded participants that “small nations like Saint-Lucia contribute little to problems like pandemics and the climate crisis but pay the highest price.”
This Summit as a whole provided an incredibly opportunity to gain insight into tackling sustainability issues faced by island communities and how we all can help build a better future for island residents. Islands offer opportunities to locally contextualize strategies for recovery and renewal, and it was uplifting to hear how much is already being done. Small Island States are on the frontline of the climate crisis through no fault of their own. They contribute just 1% of global emissions but they face rising sea levels, more extreme weather events, and devastation to local industries and livelihoods. We need to act now in solidarity with small islands states to secure our common future.
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