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• Small Island States on the Brink: Commonwealth Calls for Urgent Climate Finance

• Future in Focus: The Leaders of Emerging Tech Who Will Shape What’s Next

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Small Island States on the Brink: Commonwealth Calls for Urgent Climate Finance

The international community must honor its commitments to increase financial support for small island nations on the frontlines of climate change. This was the primary call to action at today’s Leaders’ Summit of the Small Island Developing States (SIDS) on Climate Change, jointly organized by the COP29 Presidency and the Commonwealth Secretariat in Baku.

Despite having contributed the least to climate change, SIDS face relentless impacts from extreme weather, floods, and cyclones, which threaten to reverse decades of development progress and saddle these nations with rising debt burdens.

The summit was chaired by the Commonwealth’s Secretary-General, Rt Hon Patricia Scotland KC, and attended by notable leaders including HE Ilham Aliyev, President of Azerbaijan, and UN Secretary-General António Guterres.

Secretary-General Scotland highlighted the Commonwealth Secretariat’s initiatives to support small and vulnerable states in addressing the climate crisis, noting, “At the center of our climate support structure is the Commonwealth Climate Finance Access Hub. With initial backing of US$8.5 million, the Hub has mobilized over $360 million, with an additional $500 million in the pipeline for our most vulnerable Commonwealth members.”

Other speakers included HE Mukhtar Babayev, COP29 President; the Hon Toeolesulusulu Cedric Schuster, Chair of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS); HE Dr. Mohamed Muizzu, President of the Maldives; HE Dr. Hilda Heine, President of the Marshall Islands; HE Dickon Mitchell, Prime Minister of Grenada; HE Philip Davis, Prime Minister of The Bahamas, and other leaders from the Caribbean and the Pacific. 

Prime Minister of Grenada, Dickon Mitchell, emphasized the disparity in financing, stating, “SIDS have repaid in debt financing 18 times more than they have received in climate financing.”

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