This guide distils and presents the key findings of the IPCC’s Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate for the express purpose of briefing policy-makers from SIDS and pointing them to key headlines from this latest scientific assessment.

Small Island Developing States are responsible for a tiny percentage of global greenhouse gas emissions, but have a tremendous amount at stake in the global climate change negotiations.

SIDS are home to 65 million people; more than 80% of small island residents live near the coast where flooding and coastal erosion already pose serious problems.

The SAMOA Pathway (which stands for ‘SIDS Accelerated Modalities of Action’) was produced by SIDS in 2014 and is a keystone statement of their sustainable development context and goals. This declaration recognises that “sea-level rise and other adverse impacts of climate change continue to pose a significant risk to Small Island Developing States and their efforts to achieve sustainable development and, for many, represent the gravest of threats to their survival and viability.

This guide distils and presents the key findings of the IPCC’s Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate  for the express purpose of briefing policy-makers from SIDS and pointing them to key headlines from this latest scientific assessment.

By doing so, the guide aims to:

• Provide climate change negotiators with a succinct briefing on key IPCC findings to inform their interventions in the negotiations and in the UNFCCC process, where there is still a grave chasm between the transformative action needed to respond to the climate emergency, and the current, collective ambitions of the Parties to the Paris Agreement.

• Summarise in brief the scientific findings on the impacts, vulnerability and potential to adapt to climate change, in Small Island Developing States, in the coming decades.

Read the guide: Climate science for Small Island Developing States

Photo: NASA