Apia, Samoa 2 September 2014 - Today, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) launched the GEO SIDS Outlook, part of its flagship Global Environment Outlook (GEO) series. The report, based on the findings of a broad range of SIDS scientists, experts and policy makers, provides four integrated themes for action to support SIDS become the environmental economies of the future - building a diversified, blue-green economy; technological leapfrogging; giving priority to island culture; and reconnecting with nature.
Speaking at a press conference on the report were H.E. Anote Tong, President of the Republic of Kiribati; H.E. Rolph Payet, Minister of Environment and Energy of Seychelles; UN Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner; and Philip Weech, GEO SIDS Outlook expert and Director of the Bahamas Environment Science and Technology Commission. The event was moderated by UNEP Chief Scientist Jacqueline McGlade.
"Small Island Developing States presently face a number of major challenges and hardships," said Mr. Steiner. "Many suffer from isolation and high costs associated with long distances from global markets, and lag behind in the adoption of new technologies and innovation. Growing populations concentrated in urban areas are putting stress on island resources and the health effects of unsafe water, poor sanitation and increasingly unhealthy diets. Meanwhile, climate change threatens biodiversity, livelihoods and even the very existence of some island nations."
"As the world enters the post-2015 era, significant changes both in global policy and on islands themselves were identified by the GEO expert teams from SIDS. Improvements in line with the blue-green economy would include, among other things, economic diversification, economic approaches to improve the management of biodiversity, resource efficiency, and sustainable consumption and production," he added.
With almost 30 per cent of SIDS populations living in areas less than 5 metres above sea level and the size of storms in some cases exceeding the size of whole islands, estimated losses to SIDS economies could become overwhelming. In the Caribbean, changes in annual hurricane frequency and intensity could result in additional annual losses of 0.5billion USD by 2080 to the tourism sector, meaning that without urgent action, SIDS face a future dominated by loss and damage.
Over the past two decades, there have been significant changes in SIDS economies and populations. SIDS are often highly dependent on a limited number of sectors including agriculture, fisheries, forestry, mining and tourism. Isolation and distance from markets, coupled with a heavy dependence on air transport and shipping, has resulted in fuel prices representing up to 70 per cent of GDP in some SIDS. The ageing local infrastructure, the phasing out of preferential export regimes and small domestic markets, mean that many SIDS lack economies of scale to face competition head-on.
Human well-being has potentially decreased - the result of a demographic imbalance caused by out-migration to urban centres - eroding traditional concepts of social acceptance and the spread of non-communicable disease such as diabetes. Fragmentation is also hindering communications, community building, participatory engagement in development and delivery of island services.
Many SIDS are already taking significant action: 38 countries have ratified the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and there are many regional activities providing SIDS with early warning systems and climate adaptation plans. In the energy sector, whilst fossil fuels remain at the core for power generation, agriculture and transport, many SIDS are now pursuing domestic renewable energy sources through initiatives such as SE4ALL (Sustainable Energy For All), and SIDS DOCK- (sustainable energy initiative for geothermal energy) and improvements in energy efficiency. But SIDS still face difficulties in the adoption of new technologies and innovation and the capacity to sustain them in an island setting.
The GEO SIDS Outlook report provides an integrated narrative for the future of SIDS based on an analysis of realizable opportunities, case studies and policy actions. It connects the need for improved basis services such as waste management, affordable energy and food security, to the sustainable management of natural resources, the development of a diversity of small to medium enterprises to support the blue-green economy and key sectors such as tourism, and access to technology and financing.
Note to Editors:
To download the full report click here GEO SIDS Outlook pdf
To download as an ebook: GEO SIDS Outlook ebook
Or go to UNEP Live; select SIDS Region and click in the word cloud on GEO SIDS Outlook (pdf) and (ebook) or under APPs
For data and knowledge on SIDS issues, visit
For more information, contact:
UNEP SIDS Summit, Anama Salofa anamas@sprep.org +6857749098
UNEP Nairobi, Melissa Gorelick, Information Officer, melissa.gorelick@unep.org, +254 20 762 3088/ +254 71 621 4041
UNEP News Desk, unepnewsdesk@unep.org
Background to the report
The UNEP GEO SIDS Outlook is a follow-up to the UNEP/UN DESA Foresight Process report on Emerging Issues for Small Island Developing States. It is a part of the ongoing UNEP GEO process, helping to ensure that there is a SIDS voice at the global assessment level. It has been timed as a contribution to the 2014 Third International UN Conference on SIDS in Samoa and as input to the development of the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals.
The UNEP SIDS Foresight Process identified 22 emerging environmental issues and 15 socio-economic issues. The environmental issues comprised of three cross-cutting issues (beyond GDP; unique human capacities for island sustainability and synergizing indigenous and local knowledge and modern science as a basis for sustainable island development) and 19 others covering rehabilitation of biodiversity and ecosystem services; sustainable use of natural resources; managing threats from chemicals and waste and climate change and its impacts. The report demonstrated the potential leading role that SIDS can play in defining and implementing holistic models of sustainability and human well-being.
The next step has been to undertake a SIDS Outlook process, based on the key issues identified in the Foresight Report and raised by SIDS in their submissions to the UN Conference on SIDS.
At the core of the SIDS Outlook was the UNEP Live Community of Practice on SIDS made up of government experts, scientist and policy-makers. An author group, drawn from the Community of Practice was invited to interpret what is known today about the state and trends in the SIDS environment and to articulate a set of themes for outlooks and policy choices for the future.
The Community of Practice developed a shared understanding of the key attributes that would be needed to develop future sustainable development pathways for SIDS, referring to the six themes of the SIDS conference in Samoa and the latest set of Sustainable Development Goals. During the book sprint, the author group made reference to the latest information provided in the national reports submitted to the Third UN SIDS International Conference, international scientific analyses, such as the Fifth Assessment Report of the IPCC, research reports, emerging issues also facing SIDS, case studies on good practice and solutions to key challenges in SIDS.
From these inputs, the expert group developed an ensemble of SIDS outlooks - the blue-green economy; technological leapfrogging; priority to island community and culture; and reconnecting with nature - and a set of enabling actions. Finally, the expert group suggested critical elements for a SIDS sustainability policy framework, taking into account the draft SIDS Accelerated Modalities of Action (SAMOA) Pathway, the draft Sustainable Development Goals and the national submissions of SIDS to the Samoa Conference, to allow SIDS to navigate the challenging waters ahead and implement pathways to achieve sustainable development and poverty eradication.
