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Concept
Islands First
Summary
Islands First is a non-governmental organization working on behalf of the Small Island Developing States to confront the challenges of climate change, the depletion of ocean resources (including ocean acidification and biodiversity loss), and ocean level's rise.
Small island countries have been the first to suffer the negative consequences of climate change and global warming, despite bearing little responsibility for creating the problem. Islands First seeks to foster an appreciation for the need to rapidly cut carbon dioxide emissions with international policy makers.
Cooperation among the small island states, the scientific community, and the environmental community on this scale would be historically unprecedented, but it would not be the first time the small island states have mobilized politically and became powerful agents of environmental change. In fact, a concerted effort by a group of small island states put climate change on the UN agenda back in 1988, when Malta persuaded the General Assembly to recognize the potential for "severe economic and social consequences" from climate change. The Republic of Maldives followed suit by hosting the 1989 Small States Conference on Sea Level Rise, which resulted in the "Malé Declaration on Global Warming and Sea Level Rise". The Conference also saw the creation of an Action Group on climate change consisting of more than 30 small island states, later to become the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS). This momentum continued through the 1992 "Earth Summit" in Rio de Janeiro, where AOSIS, aided by the Foundation for Environmental Law and Development (FIELD) and other NGOs, successfully lobbied for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It was thus fitting that the Maldives became the first signatory to the third protocol of the UNFCCC, also known as the Kyoto Protocol.
Official source
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