Alliance of Small Island States

Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) is an intergovernmental organization of low-lying coastal and small island countries. AOSIS was established in 1990, ahead of the Second World Climate Conference. The main purpose of the alliance is to consolidate the voices of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) to address global warming.

Alliance of Small Island States

Abbreviation	AOSIS
Established	1990
Type	Intergovernmental organization
Headquarters	New York City, New York
Membership	39 members and 5 observers
Website	www.aosis.org

These island countries are particularly vulnerable to climate change and its related effects on the ocean, including sea level rise, coastal erosion and saltwater intrusion. The members are among the nations least responsible for climate change, having contributed less than 1% to the world's greenhouse gas emissions.^[1][2][3] These states advocate for international policy and mechanisms for addressing the inequity of climate impacts.

Organization

AOSIS functions primarily as an ad hoc lobby and negotiating voice for SIDS through the United Nations (UN) system.^[4][5] It has no regular budget, permanent secretariat or formal charter.^[6] There is a Bureau, which is made up of the chair-person and two vice chairs.^[7][8]

AOSIS also uses partnerships, for example with the United Nations Development Programme and the European Commission.^[9]

Mission

AOSIS' core focus areas are climate change, sustainable development and ocean conservation.^[9]

SIDS are among the nations least responsible for climate change, having contributed less than 1% to the world's greenhouse gas emissions. They are particularly vulnerable to its effects, with some islands at risk of becoming uninhabitable due to sea level rise.^{[1][2][3][10]} AOSIS has consistently raised this threat of uninhabitability created by climate change in climate negotiations.^[11]

SIDS, of which AOSIS is predominantly comprised, account for less than 1% of the global GDP, territory, and population,^[12] meaning that individually SIDS hold little political weight in international climate negotiations.^[4] The aim of AOSIS is to amplify the voices of its members by joining together states which face similar issues. This is to increase their ability to influence climate negotiations and raise awareness for its concerns.^[9]

Actions

AOSIS has been very active from its inception. It has played a leading role in the global arena in raising awareness on climate change and advocating for action to address climate change.^[11] The creation of the alliance marked the beginning of the growth in influence of SIDS in climate politics.^[6] Despite their size and their relatively small economic and political weight, AOSIS member states have pulled above their weight in climate change negotiations.^[11]

AOSIS played an important role in establishing the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and was an important actor in the negotiations of the Framework in 1992.^[11] Its advocacy was instrumental to the inclusion of references to the greater vulnerability and special needs of SIDS in Article 4.8 of the UNFCCC.^[6][13] However, AOSIS was unsuccessful in its attempts to persuade nations to include commitments to specified greenhouse gas emission reduction targets in the Framework.^[6]

AOSIS continued to advocate for the special needs of SIDS during the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992^[14] and the 'special case' of SIDS was recognised in Agenda 21,^[15] the political action plan which resulted from the Summit. AOSIS' proposal to create an 'international insurance fund', funded by developed countries to compensate SIDS for damage caused by climate change, was turned down.^[16] In Rio, AOSIS broadened its mandate beyond climate change to also include the sustainable development of SIDS. AOSIS negotiated for the inclusion of a small program area on the sustainable development of small islands in Agenda 21.^[14][17] Agenda 21 was not legally binding, and some academics contend that the program was too vague to promote meaningful action.^[6]

AOSIS did manage to secure the inclusion in Agenda 21 of a call for a global conference on this issue,^[14][18] which led to the first Global Conference on the Sustainable Development of Small Island States, held in Barbados in 1994.^[16][6] AOSIS played a prominent role at the Conference.^[16] It was the first UN conference entirely devoted to SIDS. The Conference resulted in the translation of Agenda 21 into a more comprehensive programme, the Barbados Programme of Action on the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States.^[19][6] The five year review of the Barbados Conference, conducted at a special session of the UN General Assembly in 1999, found that the SIDS efforts to make progress towards sustainable development had been limited,^[6] while the ten year review of the Barbados Conference, which took the form of an international meeting in Mauritius in 2005, found that its implementation was largely unsuccessful.^[20]

AOSIS put forward the first draft text in the Kyoto Protocol negotiations as early as 1994. AOSIS member states Fiji and Anitgua and Barbuda were the first states to ratify the Kyoto Protocol in 1998.^[11]

AOSIS has used formal and informal meetings scheduled in advance of UN climate change conferences to raise awareness and political momentum for its mission.^[11] AOSIS has also used the media to raise awareness for its concerns. For example, in the lead up to the 2009 UN Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC) in Copenhagen, members of the cabinet of the Maldives, an AOSIS member state, held an underwater cabinet meeting to create awareness of the threat that climate change poses to the very existence of the Maldives. The stunt garnered international attention.^{[21][22][23][24]}

At the UN Climate Change Conference in Berlin in 1995, AOSIS advocated very strongly for a commitment to timetables and target measures for climate change. It gained the support of developed nations including China, Brazil, and India.^[16] AOSIS had advocated since 2008 for the inclusion of a temperature target to restrain global warming to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels. Many of the AOSIS member states were present at the Conference in Copenhagen. Democracy Now! reported that members from the island state of Tuvalu interrupted a session of the Conference on 10 December 2009 to demand that global temperature rise be limited to 1.5 °C instead of the proposed 2 °C.^[25][26] This advocacy continued in the lead up to the 2015 UNFCCC in Paris. AOSIS initiated the negotiating agenda item which would lead to the inclusion of the 1.5 °C target and was important in gaining support for its inclusion from vulnerable African and Asian countries and LDC countries.^[11] According to writer and activist Mark Lynas, the inclusion of the 1.5 °C target in the Paris Agreement was 'almost entirely' due to the advocacy of SIDS and other developing countries.^[27]

At the 2013 Warsaw climate change conference, AOSIS pushed for the establishment of an international mechanism on loss and damages stressed by the wreckage of Supertyphoon Haiyan.^[28] As the existence of many AOSIS member states are put at risk by climate change, AOSIS has threatened lawsuits. The results of a recent review of the literature ^[29] show that potential liability for climate change-related losses for AOSIS is over $570 trillion. AOSIS raised this issue again at the 2015 UNFCCC in Paris. AOSIS was instrumental in the inclusion of Article 8 in the Paris Agreement,^[11] which 'recognizes the importance of averting, minimizing and addressing loss and damage' caused by climate change,^[30] although the article does not 'provide a basis for any liability of compensation'.^[31] As in previous climate agreements, AOSIS members were among the first to ratify the Paris Agreement, with Fiji ratifying first, followed days later by the Republic of Marshall Islands, Palau, the Maldives, and others.^[11]

AOSIS member state Fiji co-hosted the UN Oceans Conference in 2017.^[32] Ministers from AOSIS member states, including Fiji, Tuvalu, and Palau used this conference to again raise awareness of the real risk that the impact of climate change poses to the very existence of their nations and to advocate for action to address climate change.^[33] Fiji also presided over the 2017 UN Climate Change Conference, making it the first SIDS to preside over a UN conference on climate change,^[1] although the event took place in Bonn due to Fiji's remote location, small size and limited infrastructure.^[34]

AOSIS membership

AOSIS has a membership of 39 global states, of which 37 are members of the UN while 2 (Cook Islands and Niue) participate within the UN, and an additional five states are observers. The alliance represents 28% of the developing countries, and 20% of the UN's total membership.^[11] Most SIDS are AOSIS members.^[35]

AOSIS has a heterogeneous membership. Member states are spread across many global regions. AOSIS' focus is SIDS, however its membership also includes low-lying coastal countries, for example Belize and Guyana, and larger islands, for example Papua New Guinea. As well as geographical differences, the member nations also vary economically, as AOSIS includes both wealthy member nations, for example Singapore, and LDC countries, for example Comoros.

The common factor which unites AOSIS members is their particular vulnerability to climate change.^[14]

Some academics contend that AOSIS' heterogeneity has weakened it effectiveness, particularly in regard to its lobbying for sustainable development.^[6][36]

Member states

The member states are:^[37]

In the Atlantic Ocean (3 countries):   Cabo Verde   Guinea-Bissau   São Tomé and Príncipe In the Caribbean (16 countries):   Antigua and Barbuda   Bahamas   Barbados   Belize   Cuba   Dominica   Dominican Republic   Grenada   Guyana   Haiti   Jamaica   Saint Kitts and Nevis   Saint Lucia   Saint Vincent and the Grenadines   Suriname   Trinidad and Tobago

In the Indian Ocean (4 countries):   Comoros   Maldives   Seychelles   Mauritius In the Pacific Ocean (15 countries):   Cook Islands   Fiji   Kiribati   Marshall Islands   Federated States of Micronesia   Nauru   Niue   Palau   Papua New Guinea   Samoa   Solomon Islands   Timor-Leste   Tonga   Tuvalu   Vanuatu In the South China Sea (1 country):   Singapore

AOSIS members in dark green; observers in light green (as of March 2008).

AOSIS also has five observers^{[citation needed]}: American Samoa, Guam, Netherlands Antilles, Puerto Rico, and the United States Virgin Islands.

Chairmanship

There have been 13 chairs of AOSIS since its establishment, with the Permanent Representative of Antigua and Barbuda, Ambassador Walton Alfonso Webson, as the current chair.^[38]

Term	Duration	Name	Country
1	1991 – 1994	Robert Van Lierop	Vanuatu
2	1994 – 1997	Annette des Iles	Trinidad and Tobago
3	1997 – 2002	Tuiloma Neroni Slade	Samoa
4	2002 – 2005	Jagdish Koonjul	Mauritius
5	2005 – 2006	Enele Sopoaga (acting)	Tuvalu
6	2006	Julian R. Hunte	Saint Lucia
7	2006 – 2009	Angus Friday	Grenada
8	2009 – 2011	Dessima Williams	Grenada
9	2012 – 2014	Marlene Moses	Nauru
10	2015 – 2017	Ahmed Sareer	Maldives
11	2017 – 2018	Ali Naseer Mohamed	Maldives
12	2019 – 2020	Lois Michele Young	Belize
13	2021 – present	Walton Alfonso Webson	Antigua and Barbuda

Honours

In 2010, AOSIS was awarded the first Frederick R. Anderson Award for Outstanding Achievement in Addressing Climate Change by the Center for International Environmental Law.^[39]

See also

• Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP)
• Barbados Programme of Action (BPOA)
• Climate change mitigation
• Islands First
• Least Developed Countries (LDC)
• World Ocean Conference
• Politics of global warming

References

1. "Small Island nations at the frontline of climate action". UNDP. Retrieved 2020-11-13.
2. "Climate change and small islands: more scientific evidence of high risks". Climate Analytics Blog. Retrieved 2020-11-13.
3. "Report of the Global Conference on the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States (Art 3)" (PDF). 1994. Retrieved 14 November 2020.
4. "Climate Change Diplomacy and Small Island Developing States - United Nations University". unu.edu. Retrieved 2020-11-13.
5. Lefale, Penehuro Fatu (2016). "Climate Clubs and the alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS)". Berlin Conference on Global Environmental Change: 2. doi:10.17169/refubium-23174 – via Frei Universitat Berlin.
6. Grote, Jenny (2010). "The Changing Tides of Small Island States Discourse - A Historical Overview of the Appearance of Small Island States in the International Arena". Law and Politics in Africa, Asia and Latin America. 43 (2): 183–186. doi:10.5771/0506-7286-2010-2-164. JSTOR 43239555 – via JSTOR.
7. Palgrave Macmillan (2016). The Statesman's Yearbook. London: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 45.
8. "[:en]Bureau of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS)[:fr]Le bureau d'alliance des petits etats insulaires[:]". UN-OHRLLS. Retrieved 2020-11-13.
9. "About Us – AOSIS (Alliance of Small Island States)". Retrieved 2020-11-13.
10. "Small island developing states in numbers; climate change edition" (PDF). 2015. Retrieved 14 November 2020.
11. Ourbak, Timothee; Magnan, Alexandre (2018). "The Paris Agreement and climate change negotiations: Small Islands, big players". Regional Environmental Change. 18 (8): 2201–2206. doi:10.1007/s10113-017-1247-9. S2CID 158547600 – via SpringerLink.
12. "Island states have had an outsized influence on climate policy". The Economist. 2019-09-19. ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved 2020-11-13.
13. "United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (Art 4.8)" (PDF). 1992. Retrieved 14 November 2020.
14. Chasek, Pamela (12 August 2005). "Margins of Power: Coalition Building and Coalition Maintenance of the South Pacific Island States and the Alliance of Small Island States". Review of European Community and International Environmental Law. 14 (2): 132. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9388.2005.00433.x – via Wiley Online Library.
15. "Agenda 21 (Article 17.123)" (PDF). 1992. Retrieved 14 November 2020.
16. Shibuya, Eric (Winter 1996–1997). ""Roaring Mice Against the Tide": The Pacific Islands and Agenda Building on Global Warming" (PDF). Pacific Affairs, University of British Columbia. 69: 552–554. JSTOR 2761186 – via JSTOR.
17. "Agenda 21 (G. Sustainable development of small islands)" (PDF). 1992. Retrieved 14 November 2020.
18. "Agenda 21 (Art. 17.130)" (PDF). 1992. Retrieved 14 November 2020.
19. (PDF). October 1994. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-02-13. Retrieved 2020-11-13.
20. (PDF). 10–14 January 2005. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-03-06. Retrieved 2020-11-13.
21. "Maldives cabinet makes a splash". 2009-10-17. Retrieved 2020-11-13.
22. "Maldivas realiza singular junta bajo el mar". El Universo (in Spanish). 2009-10-17. Retrieved 2020-11-13.
23. "Reunión de gabinete bajo el agua". La Nación (in Spanish). Retrieved 2020-11-13.
24. "Maldives cabinet makes a splash". 2009-10-17. Retrieved 2020-11-14.
25. "Citing Its Survival, Pacific Island of Tuvalu Interrupts Copenhagen Summit to Call for Binding Climate Commitments". Democracy Now!.
26. United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) (2011). Conference of the Parties – Sixteenth Session: Decision 1/CP.16: The Cancun Agreements: Outcome of the work of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention (English): Paragraph 4 (PDF) (Report). UNFCCC Secretariat: Bonn, Germany: UNFCCC. p. 3. "(...) deep cuts in global greenhouse gas emissions are required according to science, and as documented in the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, with a view to reducing global greenhouse gas emissions so as to hold the increase in global average temperature below 2 °C above preindustrial levels"
27. "Island states have had an outsized influence on climate policy". The Economist. 2019-09-19. ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved 2020-11-14.
28. . AOSIS. 11 November 2013. Archived from the original on 26 October 2014. Retrieved 12 December 2013.
29. Heidari Negin, Pearce Joshua M (2016). "A Review of Greenhouse Gas Emission Liabilities as the Value of Renewable Energy for Mitigating Lawsuits for Climate Change Related Damages". Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews. 55: 899–908. doi:10.1016/j.rser.2015.11.025.
30. "Article 8 of the Paris Agreement" (PDF). 2016. Retrieved 14 November 2020.
31. "Report of the Conference of the Parties on its twenty-first session(Art.51)" (PDF). 2015. Retrieved 14 November 2020.
32. "The Ocean Conference, 5-9 June, 2017 - United Nations, New York". www.un.org. Retrieved 2020-11-13.
33. Richard Roth (7 June 2017). "At first UN Ocean Conference, island nations plead for help". CNN. Retrieved 2020-11-13.
34. "Fiji and Bonn, an unusual partnership to host COP23 climate talks". France 24. 2017-11-05. Retrieved 2020-11-13.
35. Shultz, James M.; Cohen, Madeline A.; Hermosilla, Sabrina; Espinel, Zelde; McLean, Andrew (2016-01-02). "Disaster risk reduction and sustainable development for small island developing states". Disaster Health. 3 (1): 32–44. doi:10.1080/21665044.2016.1173443. ISSN 2166-5044. PMC 5314939. PMID 28229013.
36. Chasek, Pamela (12 August 2005). ""Margins of Power: Coalition Building and Coalition Maintenance of the South Pacific Island States and the Alliance of Small Island States"". Review of European Community and International Environmental Law. 14 (2): 133 et seqq. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9388.2005.00433.x – via Wiley Online Library.
37. "Member states". from the original on 2012-04-01. Retrieved 2019-08-16.
38. "About AOSIS". AOSIS - Alliance of Small Island States.
39. "2010 Frederick Anderson Climate Change Award Recipient - Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS)". Center for International Environmental Law. Retrieved 2020-11-10.

External links

• Official website