Climate Change: Environments Under Pressure

The environments of SIDS are influenced by multiple hazards from volcanic activity, earthquakes, droughts, tsunamis and invasive species to climate change that influence livelihoods, ecologies and international diplomacy. Coastal environments, where increasing proportions of people live, are most at risk, through multiple factors including land degradation and soil salinity. Cyclones have affected livelihoods, through physical damage and flooding, required costly responses and sometimes resulted in village relocation. Climate change, attributed to various factors, has contributed to sea-level rise, ocean acidification, erosion, reduced biodiversity, water shortages and higher temperatures, increasing development challenges. Islanders have adapted locally through nature-based and other solutions. SIDS have played a key part, often at Conference of the Parties (COPs), in pressing for global strategies such as the Green Climate Fund and loss and damage reparations, including through the International Court of Justice, to mitigate and respond to climate change damage, and to develop global policies to slow the rate of climate change, reduce biodiversity losses and plastic pollution, and protect the high seas.