BRIDGETOWN, May 10, CMC – The world’s smallest island nations – many of which are in the Caribbean – at the frontline of global climate change, have announced new actions to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and end poverty, as they wrapped up a sustainable energy conference in Barbados, organized by the UN and the Government of Barbados.
The Barbados Declaration calls for universal access to modern and affordable renewable energy services, while protecting the environment, ending poverty and creating new opportunities for economic growth.
According to the declaration – adopted ahead of next month’s UN Conference on Sustainable Development 20 years after the landmark Rio Earth Summit – 20 Small Island developing States (SIDS) gave voluntary commitments to providing universal access to energy, switching to renewable energy and reducing dependence on fossil fuels.
The meeting also came 18 years after an historic UN summit here first prompted international attention that the world’s environmental challenges, from water scarcity to rising sea levels, were felt first, and hardest, in small island and low-lying coastal developing states, from the Caribbean Sea to the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
The two-day conference brought together more than 100 government leaders, development experts, civil society activists, business executives and UN officials from 39 small island developing states (SIDS).
While stressing there are “commercially feasible options” in many SIDS for providing energy such as wind, solar, geothermal, and oceans energy, the global collection of island and low-lying coastal states called for greater access to clean energy technology.
“However, these technologies must be made accessible, affordable and adaptable to the needs and particular circumstances of SIDS communities,” the Barbados Declaration said.
“In this regard, we strongly urge the international community, particularly developed countries, to ensure the provision of financial resources, technology transfer and capacity building to SIDS,” it added.
Barbados, which hosted the first-ever UN Global Conference on the Sustainable Development of Small Island Development States in 1994, also announced its plan to increase the share of renewable energy to 29 per cent of all electricity consumption by 2029.
In the Indian Ocean, the Maldives plans to achieve carbon neutrality in the energy sector by year 2020, while Seychelles will seek to produce 15 per cent of its energy supply from renewable energy by 2030.
The declaration follows the Sustainable Energy for All initiative, launched by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon last September. The initiative seeks to ensure universal access to modern energy services, double the rate of improvement in energy efficiency and double the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix, all by 2030.
