In: News

As The COP26 Smoke Clears, Rhetoric Must Become Real Action
December 28, 2021

At COP26, the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), fought for the interests of small islands and climate vulnerable states. As Chair, I can say that our membership was forced to make compromises to ensure that the world received a climate pact that keeps us on the essential pathway of 1.5°C. It seems we small islands are always called on to compromise, to pay a high price for a crisis not of our making.

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Analysis-In 2021, governments blew hot on 1.5C goal, colder on climate action
December 20, 2021

“(We) did witness a clear shift from other countries to support keeping 1.5C alive,” said U.N. ambassador Aubrey Webson of Antigua and Barbuda, who chairs the Alliance of Small Island States, uniting 39 nations from the Pacific to the Caribbean.
Webson said the new high-level momentum behind 1.5C – as seen among leaders this year, from the G7 and G20 summits to the COP26 U.N. climate talks – must be matched by rapid action.
“Rhetoric and pledges without implementation are fool’s gold for small islands,”

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Who will pay for the damage caused by climate change?
December 15, 2021

“When countries lose their islands because of sea level rise and extreme events, they are losing their culture and traditions. There is no adapting to that,” says Le-Anne Roper, coordinator for loss and damage at the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS).

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COP 26: Poor countries demand compensation for climate impacts caused by wealthy nations
December 6, 2021

As the world is struggling to keep global warming at bay, the issue of who pays for the fallout of climate change is one of the major sticking points in negotiations at the UN climate conference in Glasgow.
Ambassador Prasad (Fiji), Minister Molwyn Joseph (Antigua and Barbuda, AOSIS Chair)

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‘A heavy load to carry’: A day in the life of a negotiator at COP26
December 6, 2021

Xavier Matsutaro, a negotiator from Palau, is focused on how to get the strongest environmental regulations for carbon markets.

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Concessional financing must be available to all #SIDS – Al Jazeera
December 6, 2021

AOSIS Negotiator, Lia Nicholson: Climate disasters do not bypass vulnerable SIDS that are defined as high income. GDP per capita cannot be applied to climate finance. Concessional financing must be available to all #SIDS in order to build our resilience to climate change.

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Key goals up in the air as COP26 climate summit ends
December 6, 2021

Ambassador Aubrey Webson, AOSIS Chair, speaks. The United Nations’ climate summit is wrapping up Saturday in Glasgow, Scotland. Delegates from nearly 200 nations are attempting to keep the goal of the 2015 Paris climate agreement alive by limiting the threshold of rising temperatures to 1.5 Celsius.

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Minister Molwyn Joseph on AOSIS Goals
December 6, 2021

An interview with the AOSIS Chair on small islands’ key developmental issues and insights on COP26

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Antigua PM urges developed countries to meet their commitments
December 6, 2021

“We are here to deliver on commitments made but we are closing out 2021 with ambition that puts us on a pathway to overshooting the 1.5 goal. Ambition is our litmus test,” Browne told the conference adding that many delegates are of the opinion that they are very close to being 1.5- degrees Celsius compatible.”

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What it’s like negotiating at COP26 as a small island state
December 6, 2021

Qui is negotiating on behalf of the Alliance of Small Island States (Aosis). It is a coalition of 39 countries, largely from the Caribbean and South Pacific, including Jamaica, Cuba, Fiji and Antigua and Barbuda.
“We are a group of very small countries that don’t have a significant amount of political leverage,” says Frances Fuller, a negotiator for Antigua and Barbuda. “But we have strength in numbers and the moral high ground – though that’s sometimes not enough to move the needle.”

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