India launches disaster-resilient infrastructure initiative for small island states

NEW DELHI – They contribute less than 1% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Yet the world’s small island developing states (SIDS) are among the most vulnerable to climate change and face the highest disaster losses as a proportion of their gross domestic product.

India, in partnership with other countries, has now launched a program to help Sids build sustainable and disaster-resistant infrastructure.

The aim is to enable them to better withstand climate shocks as well as protect lives and livelihoods.

The Infrastructure Initiative for Resilient Island States (Iris) was rolled out on Tuesday 2 November on the sidelines of the COP26 meeting. It is a joint program between member countries of the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) and Sids.

The CDRI, comprising countries, UN agencies, multilateral development banks and other stakeholders, was launched by India during the UN Climate Action Summit in September 2019 in New York.

The coalition currently has 28 member countries, including the United States, Germany, Fiji, Canada, Mauritius, the Maldives and the Dominican Republic.

Speaking at the launch of Iris in Glasgow, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the initiative would make it easier for Sids to mobilize technology, finance and information to better tackle climate change.

“It’s a matter of life or death for them, it’s a challenge to their existence,” he added.

The event brought together his British, Jamaican, Fijian, Mauritian and Australian counterparts.

Although the Iris initiative will not build infrastructure, it will help integrate climate resilience into existing and future infrastructure development plans for Sids.

A 2019 report by the World Bank and the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery estimated that the average net benefit of investing in more resilient infrastructure in low- and middle-income countries would be 4.2 trillion US dollars (5.7 trillion Singapore dollars), with one in profit for every US dollar invested.

The Sids are a group of 58 low-lying island nations severely threatened by climate change and rising sea levels.

Speaking at COP26, Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Amor Mottley, stressed that if the Sids were to survive, the average global temperature increase must be limited to 1.5 degrees C, given their high vulnerability to increased climate impacts.

Two degrees C is a death sentence for many countries, she said.

“We don’t want this dreaded death sentence. We came here today to say… try harder because our people, the climate army, the world and the planet need our actions now, not next year, not in the next decade,” she said. added.