Host Country: Barbados, a Small Island Developing State located in the Caribbean

WHY SIDS?

Every Action CountsWhether it is to organize clean-up campaigns, walk-to-work days,plastic purges, art exhibits, tree-planting drives, concerts, dance recitals, switching off the lights, recycling drives, social media campaigns and different contests — every action counts. When multiplied by a global chorus, our individual voices and actions become exponential in their impact;

The world’s small island nations, home to more than 63 million people, are renowned as prized destinations.

While small in total, the land size of small island nations does not reflect their importance as stewards of nature’s wealth on land and sea. They play an important role in Protecting the oceans and many are biodiversity hotspots, containing some of the richest reservoirs of plants and animals on the planet.

IMPORTANCE OF SIDS

SIDS are especially vulnerable to climate change due to their small size, narrow resource base, high susceptibility to natural hazards, low economic resilience, and limited human and technological capacity for mitigating and adapting to the effects of climate change.

Climate change is foremost among these challenges as global warming is causing ocean levels to rise. SIDS contribute little to the problem of climate change: the combined annual carbon dioxide output of SIDS accounts for less than one per cent of global emissions.

Coastal communities in every country are then threatened with floods and storm surges to which these small islands are most exposed.

3 CHALLENGES OF SIDS

Fisheries play a significant role in the economy, livelihoods and food security of SIDS, who hold jurisdiction over coastal waters and open seas that are many times larger than their land mass.Climate change presents one of the most significant challenges to the tourism sector, disrupting economies and livelihoods. For example, a 50-centimeter rise in sea level will result in Grenada losing 60% of its beaches, while a one metre rise would inundate the Maldives.Energy prices in the vast majority of SIDS are among the highest globally. In some cases electricity cost is 500 per cent more than in the US, primarily as a result of the dependence on imported petroleum fuels.

IMAPACT ON SIDS ECONOMY

CLIMATE CHANGE- THE GAME CHANGER

"Global warming refers to surface temperature increases, while climate change includes global warming and everything else that increasing greenhouse gas amounts will affect”.

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(5 Qs.)

Q.4

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Frequency of hot days and multiple-day heat waves have increased in past century; Increase in deaths due to heat stress in recent years .

The entire Himalayan Hindu Kush ice mass has decreased in the last two decades and the ratio of melt accelerates. Hence, water supply in areas fed by HKH glacier melt, on which hundreds of millions of people in China and India depend, will be negatively affected

Serious and recurrent floods in Northeast states of India during 2002, 2003 and 2004; A record 944 mm of rainfall in Mumbai on 26-27 July 2005 led to loss of over 1000 lives with loss of more than US$250 millions; Floods in Surat, Barmer and in Srinagar during summer monsoon season of 2006

Sea-level rise leads to intrusion of saline water into the fresh groundwater in coastal aquifers and thus adversely affects groundwater resources. For two small and flat coral islands at the coast of India, the thickness of freshwater lens was computed to decrease from 25 m to 10 m and from 36 m to 28 m, respectively, for a sea level rise of only 0.1 m

Ganges-Brahmaputra delta (also Bangladesh): More than 1 million people will be directly affected by 2050 from risk through coastal erosion and land loss, primarily as a result of the decreased sediment delivery by the rivers, but also through the accentuated rates of sea-level rise

Warmer climate, precipitation decline and droughts in most delta regions of India have resulted in drying up of wetlands and severe degradation of ecosystems

The gross per capita water availability in India will decline from ~1820 m3/yr in 2001 to as low as ~1140m3/yr in 2050

VANISHING ISLANDS

Let’s find what’s

happening in India?

INDIA’S THREATENED ISLANDS

India is among the 'extreme risk' countries where economic impacts of climate change will be most felt by 2025. Mumbai faces biggest threat from climate

change of all cities in world as it was rated poorly on the capacity of nations to combat the effects of climate change, exposure to extreme weather events and sensitivity of populations to this exposure in areas such as health

and agricultural dependence.

MUMBAI

Thirty-six tiny islands make up Lakshadweep’s land area of 32 km2. A few of these islands are little more than sandbanks, and only ten are inhabited.Coral reefs facing threat from pollution, dredging and blast fishing: A swelling population, land use change, unscientific waste disposal, mining of corals, coastal erosion, and unregulated construction are exerting pressure on the Lakshadweep islands, one of the most sensitive and fragile coastal environments in the country.

Lakshadweep Islands

•Rising sea levels are playing havoc across the Sundarbans — two islands have already been submerged. •More islands are facing the same fate.•The “vanishing islands” have rendered around 10,000 people homeless already and threaten to displace about 70,000 more in the next 14 years.

New Moore Island (South Talpatti) was a small uninhibited island in Sunderbands off the coast of Ganga-Brahmaputra Delta region. It emerged in the aftermath of Bhola cyclone in 1970. This island covered an area of 2500 sq. meters. Both India and Bangladesh argued over the claim over this small sandbar in the Bay of Bengal. In 2010, it was discovered that the island had

completely submerged possibly due to global warming.

Dhanushkodi was a small island at the southern tip of Rameshwaram in Tamil Nadu. Dhanushkodi has the only land border between India and Sri Lanka. The island was

completely washed out in the cyclone of 17 December, 1964. Before the cyclone, Dhanushkodi was a popular tourist spot and a pilgrimage town. During the cyclone a

train carrying 115 passengers was washed away killing everyone onboard. Following the aftermath of the disaster, government declared Dhanushkodi a ghost town and unfit for

living.

Great Nicobar Island located in the Bay of Bengal is the southernmost Island of the Andaman & Nicobar group of islands. The island covers an area of 1045 sq. km and is sparsely populated. It is mostly covered by rainforest and is known for its diverse wildlife. The island was severely affected by the 2004 Tsunami resulting in numerous deaths and communications were cut off from the rest of the world for a whole day. The tsunami subsided the light house by 4.25 m.

Great Nicobar Island

Majuli Island located in Brahmaputra river in Assam is India’s largest river island. The island covered a total area of 1250 sq. km., but has been reduced to an area of less than 450 sq. km in recent years, largely due to floods and erosion. The island houses many east Indian Tribes with villages numbering

144 and a population of 1,50,000. The island is believed to be a cultural capital of Assam since 16th century.

North Sentinel Island located in the Bay of Bengal and part of Andaman Islands. Most of the island is heavily forested, surrounded by coral reefs and it lacks a natural harbor. The island is popular due to the Sentinelse people, who inhabit the island. They reject any contact with any outsider to the island and are among the last people to remain

virtually untouched by modern civilization.

HOW ARE SIDS

WORKING TOWARDS A

SUSTAINABLE FUTURE?

NOW LET’S EXPLORE HOW

BUSINESS HOUSES COULD HELP?

New Company Act 2013 enlists broad guidelines to address top 7 world problems; Poverty, AIDs, Women Empowerment, Education, Livelihood and Environment.

Corporate Social Responsibility could be integrated with UN’s theme of International Year of SIDS to have wider acceptability.

Support Coastal Communities to meet up the climate change challenges and providing tools to mitigate climate change.

Adopt Marine National Parks to bring in green practices.

Driving company’s sustainability mission through green economy model.

ROLE OF BUSINESS HOUSES

In Corporation 2020, Pavan Sukhdev lays out a sweeping new vision for tomorrow’s corporation: one that will increase human well being and social equity, decrease environmental risks and ecological losses, and still generate profit.

Sukhdev illustrates his vision with examples ranging from Infosys’s creation of human capital to Citibank’s having to change its project finance policy due to rainforest destruction. From its insightful look into the history of the corporation to the thoughtful discussion of the steps needed to craft a better corporate model.

Corporation 2020 offers a hopeful vision for the role of business in shaping a more equitable, sustainable future.

Let’s now ask how individuals like you and me could make a difference? Take

tips from WED Ambassadors

HOW TO BECOME A GREEN MUMBAIKAR?

CONTACT DETAILSDr. V.ShubhalaxmiDeputy Director, BNHSvshubhalaxmi@gmail.comhttp://in.linkedin.com/pub/shubhalaxmi-vaylure/13/951/52/Sources (www.unep.org, www.panda.org, www.boydom.com )

POINT TO PONDERWould you like to have sea at your doorstep?

If not do something TODAY#WED2014