For most individuals, the concept of instantly dropping every little thing – their house, their possessions, and even their members of the family and buddies – is unthinkable. However, for island communities around the globe, this concept is all too actual. And because the results of local weather change – together with extra frequent and extreme pure disasters and excessive climate occasions – intensify, the menace is changing into more and more acute.
Seven years in the past, my house, the small island nation of Dominica, was struck by Hurricane Maria – a class 5 hurricane, which triggered catastrophic loss and injury from which we’re nonetheless recovering. Two different island international locations, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenada, fell sufferer to an analogous tragedy this previous summer time, when Hurricane Beryl, a class 4 storm, tore by the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico.
Hurricanes have lengthy been a characteristic of life within the Caribbean. However Maria and Beryl had been no bizarre hurricanes: Maria introduced record-breaking rainfall, and Beryl was the earliest hurricane in historical past to succeed in class 5 within the Atlantic Ocean. Scientists agree that local weather change powered these disasters – and has made extra storms like them way more seemingly.
It bears repeating that the international locations which are most weak to local weather change – particularly small island growing states (SIDS), like Dominica, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Grenada – are sometimes people who have accomplished the least to trigger it. In consequence, we’ve little energy to mitigate it straight, equivalent to by decreasing our personal (already low) emissions. However we are able to nonetheless contribute to overcoming the problem. The bottom line is to work collectively to compel large polluters to alter their conduct.
There are few polluters larger than the transport trade. Not solely is transport answerable for round 3 per cent of complete world greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions; it additionally pollutes our oceans with sewage, plastics, and oil and chemical compounds. Transport thus causes critical hurt to human well being, particularly for low-income port communities in growing international locations, with pollution from ships estimated to contribute to over 250,000 untimely deaths yearly.
To make certain, a functioning transport trade stays important each to the worldwide financial system and to life in SIDS. Ships transfer round 80 per cent of all traded merchandise worldwide; for Dominica, this consists of nearly all important items, from meals to instruments to medical provides. Transport additionally facilitates the tourism that helps so many livelihoods on our island.
However, whereas transport is important, so is decreasing the related air pollution. That’s the reason the Worldwide Tribunal for the Regulation of the Sea – the world’s highest courtroom for marine safety – issued an unprecedented advisory opinion in Might stating that international locations are legally obliged to chop emissions, together with from transport, in an effort to defend the ocean.
Placing a worth on the trade’s GHG emissions would go a good distance towards advancing that goal. Requiring transport corporations to pay for each ton of emissions from their vessels would elevate the price of utilizing fossil fuels, thereby accelerating the shift towards clean-energy sources.
In response to a latest examine by the United Nations Convention on Commerce and Growth, such a levy would hurt the worldwide financial system lower than different approaches to decarbonising transport, equivalent to a clean-fuel normal. And if the revenues generated are directed towards growing economies, the surcharge may cut back world inequality. These revenues could be substantial: in line with the World Financial institution, a levy of $150 per ton would generate $60-80 billion per 12 months.
For international locations like Dominica, such a coverage could be a game-changer. It will cut back the air pollution from ships that come to our shores, make our ports and provide chains extra resilient to rising sea ranges and excessive climate occasions, advance a simply vitality transition, and help progress on the Sustainable Growth Objectives.
A perfect alternative to speed up progress towards this purpose is about to unfold in London. Between September 23 and October 4, the UN’s Worldwide Maritime Group (IMO) and its 175 member states will try and agree on a set of insurance policies for decreasing transport emissions, together with some type of emissions pricing, to be adopted in April 2025.
Within the negotiations, SIDS should stand collectively to make sure that the levy is sufficiently excessive, and that the revenues can be distributed equitably. Already, a rising majority of nations need to see a levy mechanism adopted on the IMO, however others, together with Brazil and China, proceed to withstand this chance.
Belize and Pacific island states are calling for a worth of $150 per ton, with the revenues going largely to SIDS and least developed international locations to finance funding in zero-emissions vitality, ships and maritime infrastructure, and broader local weather and resilience objectives. Extra international locations, within the Caribbean and past, should be part of them. When talking in unison, our voices will matter.
