Small Island Developing States

Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are island and low-lying coastal nations that face common barriers to sustainable development, including limited resources, poor economic resilience, and vulnerability to sea level rise and natural disasters.¹ While small island nations emit less than one percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, their geographic and economic characteristics put them at risk to experience the effects of climate change with more immediacy and severity than anywhere else in the world.²

Climate change is expected to result in a variety of environmental, social, and economic effects on island states, including threats to natural habitat, loss of habitable and agricultural land, coastal erosion, increased intensity and frequency of tropical storms, decreased food and water security, and adverse impacts on human health.³ Given these serious threats arising from climate change, many small island states have joined in collaborative organizations and formulated national action plans that address and respond to climate change. These plans and approaches combine elements of climate adaptation and greenhouse gas mitigation to achieve a greater degree of resilience in the face of a changing climate and higher energy prices. While each island state possesses different adaptive capacities, with some states better equipped to cope with climate change than others, many are already developing community-based adaptation and mitigation strategies.

Background

View Small Island Developing States in a larger map

Map of Small Island States

The United Nations identified 52 entities as Small Island Developing States.⁴ These SIDS are primarily concentrated in the tropical zones of three regions:

Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea: Anguilla; Antigua and Barbuda; Aruba; the Bahamas; Barbados; Belize; British Virgin Islands; Cape Verde; Cuba; Dominica; the Dominican Republic; Grenada; Guinea-Bissau; Guyana; Haiti; Jamaica; Montserrat; Netherlands Antilles; Puerto Rico; Saint Kitts and Nevis; Saint Lucia; Saint Vincent and the Grenadines; São Tomé and Principe; Suriname; Trinidad and Tobago; and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Pacific Ocean: American Samoa; Commonwealth of Northern Marianas; Cook Islands; Federated States of Micronesia; Fiji; French Polynesia; Guam; Kiribati; Marshall Islands; Nauru; New Caledonia; Niue; Palau; Papua New Guinea; Samoa; Solomon Islands; Timor-Lesté; Tonga; Tuvalu; and, Vanuatu.
Indian Ocean: Bahrain; Comoros; the Maldives; Mauritius; the Seychelles; and, Singapore.

Various international unions of small island states facilitate collaboration on economic, political, and environmental issues. The Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), established in 1991, consists of the 43 island member states within the G77, the largest intergovernmental organization of developing states in the United Nations.⁵ The Pacific Island Forum (PIF) in the South Pacific, the Indian Ocean Commission or Commission de l’Océan Indien (COI) in the Indian Ocean, and the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) in the Caribbean region serve as key sub-regional organizations.⁶

Small island states contain a highly unique range of biological diversity with over 4,000 species of endemic plants and animals, including some of the largest and most diverse coral reefs. Niche habitats and small populations often result in species with unique traits and adaptations to environmental and climatic conditions.⁷

A range of common characteristics leave many island states economically vulnerable and include small human populations, dependence on only one or a few sectors of the economy, and vulnerability to internal and global economic developments. Future changes in weather patterns and sea level predicted by climate change models will further affect virtually all areas of their economies and societies. ⁸

Many island states have devised climate action plans that outline strategies to mitigate industrial greenhouse gas emissions. Many SIDS also seek to reduce their heavy dependence on petroleum. Therefore, these climate action plans often investigate the potential of renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, hydro and geothermal power that are widely exploitable in many island states.⁹

Impact and threats of climate change

The governments of most small island states regard climate change as an immediate threat to their national welfare, and many have openly criticized industrial nations for failing to mitigate their greenhouse gas emissions.¹⁰ The United Nations first recognized the susceptibility of SIDS at the 44th session of the General Assembly in 1989, adopting a resolution that outlined the negative impacts of climate change on small island states. The 1994 Barbados UN Global Conference on the Sustainable Development of Small Island States produced the Barbados Programme of Action for the sustainable development of SIDS, which identified priority areas that included climate change, energy resources, technology, and resource management.¹¹

The severity and specific effects of climate change will differ from island to island, but for many small developing island states the sea level rises currently projected by the Intergovernment Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will result in major land loss, and by extension, social changes that potentially include total relocation. Islands are already at high risk due to their low-lying geography and vulnerability to natural disasters. Their ability to adapt to climate change will be further complicated by existing anthropogenic pressures, such as population growth.¹²

Island states most susceptible to sea level rise include the low-lying atoll states of the Maldives, Tuvalu, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, and Tokelau. However islands states such as Papua New Guinea and the low-lying outer islands of other states are also expected to be affected.¹³ On islands that project at greater distance from sea level, low-lying parts of the coast may be lost, low-lying inland areas may become more swampy, and fertile areas may be submerged. An overall trend of increased rates of shoreline regression is also projected to take place as vulnerable coastlines such as sand-barrier and lagoon coasts erode.¹⁴

Loss of land and coastal erosion

Coastal land loss and erosion is predicted to have potentially dire effects on communities, including potential displacement of human populations.¹⁵ Ocean thermal expansion- referring to the tendency of matter to change in volume in response to changes in temperature - and the melting of glaciers and ice caps is expected to trigger rising sea levels on a global scale, and small island nations will be among those countries most immediately affected. Many islands sit just 3 to 4 meters above sea level, and even on islands at greater elevations, much of the economic activity and infrastructure is located near the coast.

Houses being built over a mangrove in Haiti, making them highly prone to flooding.

Houses in Haiti being constructed over a mangrove, making them inherently prone to flooding.

Source: Author's work. Author: Rémi Kaupp.
Permission: Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 License.

Some island states are already experiencing land loss that puts human life in jeopardy. On the Carteret Islands, social pressures caused by rising sea levels have led to a formal plan to relocate the Island's 2,500 inhabitants to Bougainville, another island on Papua New Guinea.¹⁶ The typical sea level around the Carteret Islands (1.5 meters) has risen steadily over recent years, covering formerly inhabited areas and salinating freshwater supplies and subsistence crops.¹⁷ The government of Papua New Guinea has organized a voluntary evacuation plan for the Islands that began in 2008 and will continue through 2020, but some scientists predict that the islands will be completely uninhabitable as early as 2015.¹⁸ The world's first community of climate change refugees, the Carteret Islands may be considered a microcosm of the societal effects of climate change.

Natural disasters

Small island nations are inherently vulnerable to natural disasters including storm surges, floods, droughts, tsunamis and cyclones given their geographic, topographic, and physical characteristics, such as proximity to sea level. Many reefs surrounding islands also serve to protect the coast from storm surges, but degradation of these reefs due to pollution and climate change also leaves coasts vulnerable. This vulnerability became apparent following the 2005 Indian Ocean tsunami that devastated small islands in the Indian Ocean such as the Maldives and the Andaman and Nicobar islands, and displaced more than 5 million people and left more than 150,000 people dead.¹⁹ The IPCC forecasts a marked increase in the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events like this which, for many islands, will cause inundation, widespread damage to infrastructure, and loss of coastal agriculture.²⁰ More frequent natural disasters will also result in costly societal effects such as food and water shortages and loss of human lives.

Human health

Climate-related health issues in tropical regions include malnutrition, vector-borne diseases, water-borne diseases, heat stress, respiratory problems, and disaster response to climate and weather events.²¹ Prolonged drought conditions can impact agricultural output and shrink livestock populations, and floods can also decimate food stocks and strip soil of its fertility for many future seasons. In extreme cases these direct impacts on food supply could lead to human malnutrition, dehydration, or starvation.²²

Increased mean surface air temperatures in tropical regions will likely change the abundance and distribution of diseases. As a result, inhabitants of small island nations may suffer from increased incidences of both non-vector and vector-borne diseases, including malaria, filariasis and dengue fever.²³ Higher average air temperatures will also cause more frequent heat waves, and as a potential consequence, higher rates of respiratory problems, illness and mortality.²⁴ Water-borne diseases such as cholera and diarrheal diseases caused by organisms such as giardia, salmonella and cryptosporidium could also spread more quickly.²⁵ ²⁶

Health policies for adaptation to climate variability and climate change include strategies to contain specific diseases, strengthen political institutions to increase awareness of climate-related health problems, and emphasize educational and communication programs.²⁷ In addition, some encourage implementing early-warning systems (EWS) that use climate forecasts, epidemiological surveillance and risk analysis to form predictive models. These models help map out a response strategy that is recommended to decision-makers and communicated to the public.²⁸ Of the 18 diseases meeting defined criteria for the potential for climate-based EWS per the World Health Organization, few (African trypanosomiasis, leishmaniasis, yellow fever and Murray Valley encephalitis) are not associated with some sort of EWS development activity.²⁹ For others (St. Louis encephalitis and West Nile virus in the United States of America) operational and effective warning systems have been developed which rely solely on viral activity detection. It remains unclear whether the addition of climatic predictors would improve the predictive accuracy or lead-time of these systems. For the remaining diseases (cholera, malaria, meningitis, dengue, Japanese encephalitis, Rift Valley fever and Ross River virus), research projects have demonstrated a temporal link between climatic factors and variations in disease rates. In some of these cases the power to predict epidemics has been tested, although the tests are preliminary and usually based on either limited data or inadequate description of the methods used.

Destruction of natural habitats

Because of their small size and the endemic nature of many species, the biological diversity of small island developing states is extremely fragile. Deforestation and forest degradation have affected the dynamic interactions of ocean, coral reefs, land formations and vegetation.

A lionfish photographed off the Solomon Islands. Lionfish are dependent on coral reefs, which serve as habitats for their primary food sources.

A lionfish, off the Solomon Islands. Like other tropical species lionfish rely on coral reefs - habitats for their primary food sources - for sustenance.

Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/7921492@N02/1783960029/. Author: M Jwinoz.Permission: Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License.

Rising air temperatures will likely disrupt the delicate equilibrium of terrestrial, marine and agro-ecosystems in SIDS.³⁰ For example, higher sea surface temperatures and ocean acidification will lead to more extreme and widespread incidences of coral bleaching and coral mortality.³¹ Other human-induced stresses on the reefs include dredging, coral and sand mining, harbor construction, reclamation, construction of seawalls and jetties, and island-based pollution. Stress on the reefs threatens fresh water and other natural resources, and also makes island communities more vulnerable to natural disasters. The reefs provide many services for small islands, including physical protection and preservation of the islands, strengthening fisheries, attracting tourism, and playing a role in local traditions and culture. The reefs are a main attraction for tourism and provide habitats for fish that are consumed locally, used as bait for tuna fisheries, and exported.³²

Inhabitants of small island states may be most dramatically impacted by climate change through decreased agricultural yield and the reduced availability of freshwater. For example, 80% of the population of Pacific communities rely on agriculture for subsistence and economic livelihood. Many of the predicted likely effects of climate change--such as rising sea levels and associated land loss, droughts and flooding, pest infestation and temperature changes--could all lead to lower agricultural productivity.³³ This theory is bolstered by evidence from the El Niño season of 1997-1998, when significant reductions were reported in most crop yields in the Pacific region corresponding to regional climate changes caused by El Niño. Extreme weather events, such as droughts and tropical cyclones, which some groups have predicted could increase with climate changes, could cause increased salinization of soils and water supplies, contributing further to lower food production.³⁴

Most small island states already struggle to maintain a sufficient supply of fresh water to meet domestic, commercial and agricultural needs. The main source of fresh water is usually rain water, and in many island countries the wet season sees four times more rain than the dry season, often meaning frequent flash floods in the wet season and serious water shortages during the dry season. Climate change may cause these wet periods to become wetter and dry periods to become drier, and more frequent storm surges that can contaminate stored fresh water.³⁵ These changes could make already challenging management of fresh water supplies even more challenging.

Fisheries frequently contribute up to ten percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in many small island states and therefore the socio-economic implications of impacts from climate change on fisheries could be significant. Changes in sea surface temperatures will affect fish migration patterns and depth of fish stocks. This will have consequences on the size and seasonality of fish harvests. Coral bleaching and other damage to coastal ecosystems will further hamper fishing activities by damaging fish habitat.

Economic impacts

Many small island states share economic characteristics that present challenges to sustainable development. In fact, small island states comprise 12 out of the 50 Least Developed Countries (LCDs) designated by the United Nations.³⁶

Fishing, a crucial part of many SIDS economies, is under threat due to climate-related oceanic changes.

Source:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/haddencatalyst/ / CC BY 2.0

. Author: Haddensavix. Permission: Creative Commons Attribution 2.0.

³⁷ Island states often depend almost entirely on specific sectors such as subsistence agriculture, aquaculture, fisheries and tourism. These industries are all susceptible to the effects of social conflict, extreme weather events and sea-level rise--all of which may increase in frequency from to climate change.³⁸ The economies of islands states are often particularly dependent on tourism, an industry that is especially vulnerable to internal and external disruptions. For example, many SIDS economies suffered major losses when the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 caused a drastic drop in international travel. ³⁹ The decline in tourism after natural disasters such as hurricanes and typhoons adds further economic pressure on top of the steep costs to repair damage caused by storms.

The small size and remote geography of many SIDS also mean poor economies of scale and heavy dependence on imports, often resulting in very high costs for energy, transportation and communication.⁴⁰ As climate change causes natural disasters to increase, investment risk will rise, and small island economies will become less attractive to foreign sources of capital.⁴¹ As a result, small island states could become increasingly dependent on foreign aid.⁴² Most SIDS, particularly the small islands of the Pacific and Indian Ocean, remain heavily dependent on traditional forms of biomass based energy (fuel wood from natural forests, coconut shells, husks and stem wood, residues from crops such as coffee, cocoa, for cooking purposes which makes meal preparation hazardous to the health of the household, in particular women and children. As with fossil fuels, current biomass usage is inefficient.⁴³ The potential savings that would accrue from a reduction in SIDS’ dependence on imported petroleum, or from increased use of energy efficiency and conservation measures and renewable energy technologies (RETs), could contribute significantly to improving the economic, social and environmental well-being of SIDS.

Mitigation and adaptation

Recognizing their exposure to climate change, many small island states have developed approaches that combine elements of climate adaptation and greenhouse gas mitigation in order to achieve a greater degree of resilience in the face of a changing climate and higher energy prices. Many experts have pointed out that strategies that include component renewable energy development, energy efficiency programs, and technology transfer can reduce the carbon footprint of small island nations while simultaneously decreasing energy costs and vulnerabilities to climatic changes and extreme weather events.

Wington Wind Farm, located in Jamaica.

Source: Work of author. Author: Gwyneth Davidson. Permission: Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 License..

Each island state possesses different adaptive capacities, with some states are better equipped to cope with climate change than others. Factors such as total land area, coastline length, and location of economic activity relative to the coastline have large impacts on adaptive capacity. In extreme circumstances, sea level rise and its associated consequences could trigger abandonment of land and migration at great economic and social costs.⁴⁴ However, multiple options are available for states, including engineering solutions such as sea dikes, hurricane resistant buildings, and improved water storage; legislative solutions such as improved building codes and land zoning around coasts; and technological solutions such as crops that are genetically modified to fit specific climatic conditions.⁴⁵ If SIDS invested in harnessing readily available renewable energy resources instead of oil, they could benefit financially as well as environmentally. As of August 2008, all island states collectively spent over $90 million each day for more than 900,000 barrels of oil (price of $100 per barrel). If this money were invested in new renewable generation, 72 megawatts of wind capacity could be created (based on 1 megawatt turbines at $1.5 million each assuming $125 per barrel) or 11 megawatts of solar capacity at a price of $10 per watt.⁴⁶ Furthermore, investment in renewable energy installations remain assets for as long as they can harvest free and clean energy.

Many adaptation efforts on SIDS are already taking place at the local, community-based level. In Vanuatu, South Pacific Regional Environment Program (SPREP) has worked in partnership with the Canadian government to move 100 villagers living in the Lateu settlement to higher ground 15 meters above current sea level. Adaptive efforts also apply traditional coping strategies to new climate conditions. For example, on Timor Island farmers have selected for new varieties of staple crops that are resistant to droughts and storm surges and help to ensure food security.⁴⁷

National Adaptation Programs of Action (NAPAs) serve as adaptation frameworks for the world's Least Developed Countries (LDCs), identifying priority activities that respond to specific adaptation needs and building adaptive capacity to climate variability. Need for these adaptation action plans was identified initially in 2001 at the 7th Conference of the Parties (COP) of the UNFCCC. That same year, the Council authorized the the Global Environment Facility (GEF) to support LDCs in preparing their NAPAs. The GEF's work with islands on developing their NAPAs, as well as a portion of the subsequent resulting proposals, are funded through the LDC Fund, which was also established by COP in 2001.⁴⁸

The NAPAs are prepared through a participatory process, involving local communities in particular. After consultations, a national NAPA team works with the GEF to develop prioritized proposals for adaptation activities that are subsequently funded by various sources including the Least Developed Country Fund. The twelve island states that identify as LCDs are each in the process of preparing NAPAs, and Samoa and the Union of Comoros have already completed their plans.⁴⁹

There are various sources of multilateral funding available for adaptation on SIDS, including the GEF Trust Fund, the Special Climate Change Fund, the LDC Fund (noted before), and the Adaptation Fund. Funding is also available through other bilateral and multilateral sources, including those that support the implementation of multilateral environmental agreements such as the Convention on Biological Diversity. Moreover, international organizations such as UNESCO and UNEP have regional programs for SIDS that provide opportunities for gaining further support for implementation of adaptation activities at both the national and regional level.⁵⁰

Small Island Developing States (SIDS) Wiki Project
Small Island Developing States
Click here for the template to begin a new country page
Atlantic and Caribbean	Anguilla; Antigua and Barbuda; Aruba; the Bahamas; Barbados; Belize; British Virgin Islands; Cape Verde; Cuba; Dominica; the Dominican Republic; Grenada; Guinea-Bissau; Guyana; Haiti; Jamaica; Montserrat; Netherlands Antilles; Puerto Rico; Saint Kitts and Nevis; Saint Lucia; Saint Vincent and the Grenadines; São Tomé and Principe; Suriname; Trinidad and Tobago; and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Pacific Ocean	American Somoa; Commonwealth of Northern Marianas; Cook Islands; Federated States of Micronesia; Fiji; French Polynesia; Guam; Kiribati; Marshall Islands; Nauru; New Caledonia; Niue; Palau; Papua New Guinea; Samoa; Solomon Islands; Timor-Lesté; Tonga; Tuvalu; and Vanuatu.
Indian Ocean	Bahrain; Comoros; the Maldives; Mauritius; the Seychelles; and Singapore.
Initiatives and Sponsors
Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS); Asian Development Bank (ADB); Barbados Programme of Action (BPoA); Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC); Global Environment Facility (GEF); Global Sustainable Energy Islands Initiative (GSEII); Inter-American Development Bank (IADB); Organization of American States (OAS); Pacific Islands Forum (PIF); Red Cross/Red Crescent Climate Centre (RC/RCCC); Small Island Developing States Network (SIDSNet); South Pacific Regional Environment Program (SPREP); United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC); United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO); United States Agency for International Development (USAID); World Bank (WB)
Related Topics
Ocean Acidification

Footnotes

1. : Small Island Developing States Network, Background. Retrieved on: 20 April 2009.

2. : Report by the UNFCCC Secretariat. Vulnerability and Adaptation to Climate Change in Small Island Developing States, Background paper for the expert meeting on adaptation for small island developing states, p. 8. 2007. Retrieved on: 17 May 2009.

3. Report by the UNFCCC Secretariat. Vulnerability and Adaptation to Climate Change in Small Island Developing States, Background paper for the expert meeting on adaptation for small island developing states, p. 4-5. 2007. Retrieved on: 17 May 2009.

4. : United Nations Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States, List of Small Island Developing States. Retrieved on: 20 April 2009.

5. : Group of G77 at the United Nations, About the Group of G77. Retrieved on: 5 May 2009.

6. : J.B. Ball. Regional and International Forestry Related Organisations and Collaboration: The Way Forward? International Forestry Review 4(4), 2002: 317-319. (sub req'd)

7. United Nations Environment Programme, 12 February 1998. Biodiversity resources in small island developing states. Retrieved on: 11 August 2009.

8. : Lal, M., et al. Future Climate Change and its Impacts over Small Island States. Climate Research Vol. 19 (2002): 188-189.

9. Global Energy Network Institute, August 2008. Report on Renewable Energy Potential of Small Island States. Retrieved on: 11 August 2009.

10. International Expert Group Meeting on Indigenous Peoples and Climate Change. United Nations, April 2008.

11. : G77 Website, Statement by Ambassador Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser at the International Meeting to Review the Implementation of the Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States (Port Louis, Mauritius, 13 January 2005). Retrieved on: 30 April 2009.

12. : Lal, M., et al. Future Climate Change and its Impacts over Small Island States. Climate Research Vol. 19 (2002): 187.

13. : Singh, R., et al. The Influence of Climate Variation and Change on Diarrheal Disease in the Pacific Islands. Environmental Health Perspectives Vol. 109, no. 2 (February 2001): 155.

14. : Edwards, M. Security Implications of a Worst-case Scenario of Climate Change in the South-west Pacific. Australian Geographer Vol. 30, No. 3 (1999): 313, 318.

15. : Lal, M., et al. Future Climate Change and its Impacts over Small Island States. Climate Research Vol. 19 (2002): 187.

16. : Haley January Eckels, 18 January 2008, Digital Journal. Climate change refugees forced to leave Carteret Islands. Retrieved on: 10 May 2009.

17. : Richard Sheers, 18 December 2007, Daily Mail UK. The world's first climate change refugees to leave island due to rising sea levels. Retrieved on: 14 May 2009.

18. : Haley January Eckels, 18 January 2008, Digital Journal. Climate change refugees forced to leave Carteret Islands. Retrieved on: 10 May 2009.

19. : Kimani Chege for SciDev, 10 January 2005. "Tsunami highlights threats to small island states." Retrieved on: 2 May 2009.

20. : Edwards, M. Security Implications of a Worst-case Scenario of Climate Change in the South-west Pacific. Australian Geographer Vol. 30, No. 3 (1999): 313.

21. : World Health Organization, Climate Variability and Change and their Health Effects in Pacific Island Countries (pdf), Workshop Report (Apia, Samoa 25-28 July 2000), December 2000. p.10. Accessed Aug 9, 2009.

22. : World Health Organization, Climate Variability and Change and their Health Effects in Pacific Island Countries (pdf), Workshop Report (Apia, Samoa 25-28 July 2000), December 2000. p.16. Accessed Aug 9, 2009.

23. : Edwards, M. Security Implications of a Worst-case Scenario of Climate Change in the South-west Pacific. Australian Geographer Vol. 30, No. 3 (1999): 313.

24. : Lal, M., et al. Future Climate Change and its Impacts over Small Island States. Climate Research Vol. 19 (2002): 188.

25. : Lal, M., et al. Future Climate Change and its Impacts over Small Island States. Climate Research Vol. 19 (2002): 188.

26. : Singh, R., et al. The Influence of Climate Variation and Change on Diarrheal Disease in the Pacific Islands. Environmental Health Perspectives Vol. 109, no. 2 (February 2001): 158.

27. Adapting to Climate Variability and Change: A Guidance Manual for Development Planning. August, 2007. Last viewed June 29, 2009.

28. World Health Organization, Climate Variability and Change and their Health Effects in Pacific Island Countries (pdf), Workshop Report (Apia, Samoa 25-28 July 2000), December 2000. p.25. Accessed Aug 9, 2009.

29. Using Climate to Predict Disease Outbreaks: A Review. 2004.

30. : Lal, M., et al. Future Climate Change and its Impacts over Small Island States. Climate Research Vol. 19 (2002): 187-188.

32. World Health Organization, Climate Variability and Change and their Health Effects in Pacific Island Countries (pdf), Workshop Report (Apia, Samoa 25-28 July 2000), December 2000. p.18. Accessed Aug 9, 2009.

33. : Edwards, M. Security Implications of a Worst-case Scenario of Climate Change in the South-west Pacific. Australian Geographer Vol. 30, No. 3 (1999): 313-314.

34. : United Food and Agriculture Organization, Small Island Developing States Forum: From Environmental to Food Security Concerns(pdf), Chair's Workshop Summary (Wednesday 4 June 2008), High Level Conference on World Food Security: The Challenges of Climate Change and Bioenergy. Retrieved on 4 May 2009.

35. : Singh, R., et al. The Influence of Climate Variation and Change on Diarrheal Disease in the Pacific Islands. Environmental Health Perspectives Vol. 109, no. 2 (February 2001): 155-156.

36. : United Nations Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States, List of Small Island Developing States. Retrieved on: 20 April 2009.

37. : United Nations Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States, List of Least Developed Countries. Retrieved on: 17 May 2009.

38. : Report by the UNFCCC Secretariat. Vulnerability and Adaptation to Climate Change in Small Island Developing States, Background paper for the expert meeting on adaptation for small island developing states, p. 10. 2007. Retrieved on: 17 May 2009.

39. : Kirstie Méheuxa and El Parker, Tourist sector perceptions of natural hazards in Vanuatu and the implications for a small island developing state, 23 July 2004. Retrieved on: 17 May 2009.

40. : Report by the UNFCCC Secretariat. Vulnerability and Adaptation to Climate Change in Small Island Developing States, Background paper for the expert meeting on adaptation for small island developing states, p. 10. 2007. Retrieved on: 17 May 2009.

41. : Edwards, M. Security Implications of a Worst-case Scenario of Climate Change in the South-west Pacific. Australian Geographer Vol. 30, No. 3 (1999): 316.

42. : Edwards, M. Security Implications of a Worst-case Scenario of Climate Change in the South-west Pacific. Australian Geographer Vol. 30, No. 3 (1999): 315.

43. Developing an Energy Agenda for SIDS. Report of the Expert Meeting On Capacity Building for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency in Small Island Developing States. Niue. 7 TO 11 JULY 2003.

44. : Lal, M., et al. Future Climate Change and its Impacts over Small Island States. Climate Research Vol. 19 (2002): 190.

45. Vulnerability and Adaptation to Climate Change in Small Island Developing States. Background paper for the expert meeting on adaptation for SIDS, pg. 5. Commissioned by the secretariat of the UNFCCC with input provided by Dr. Graham Sem. Retrieved on: 5 August 2009.

46. Global Energy Network Institute, August 2008. Report on Renewable Energy Potential of Small Island States. Report on Renewable Energy Potential of Small Island States. Retrieved on: 11 August 2009.

47. Global Energy Network Institute, August 2008. Report on Renewable Energy Potential of Small Island States. Retrieved on: 11 August 2009.

48. UNEP, National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPAs) under the Climate Change Convention, Manual on Compliance with and Enforcement of Multilateral Environmental Agreements.

49. UNEP, National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPAs) under the Climate Change Convention, Manual on Compliance with and Enforcement of Multilateral Environmental Agreements.(???) p. 19

50. UNEP, National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPAs) under the Climate Change Convention, Manual on Compliance with and Enforcement of Multilateral Environmental Agreements.(???) p. 6