Despite occupying less than 0.5% of the Earth’s land surface, Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are indispensable to global biodiversity and marine conservation. These 39 island nations, scattered around the world, are custodians of approximately 30% of the ocean. They are also home to 40% of the world’s coral reefs—some of the most biologically diverse ecosystems on Earth.
SIDS were pivotal in establishing the 1.5°C global warming target in the Paris Agreement, demonstrating their leadership in environmental stewardship. Yet, despite their influence and contributions, SIDS face disproportionate impacts from climate change, biodiversity loss, and marine pollution.
If we want to deliver meaningful progress in the global fight against plastic pollution, it is essential that we prioritise the needs of SIDS.
For SIDS, the ocean is more than a beautiful backdrop; it’s the lifeline of their economies and cultures. Ocean health is integral to SIDS economies and, in many SIDS, tourism and fisheries make up over half of GDP. For example, in Barbados, which collaborated with Common Seas to develop a National Action Plan on plastic pollution, tourism alone comprises 17% of the economy.
However, SIDS are currently facing a “triple planetary crisis” of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution.
Marine pollution, especially plastic pollution, contaminates beaches, disrupts marine life, and threatens industries and cultures built around the ocean. With their survival closely tied to ocean health, SIDS need global support to reduce plastic pollution, protect their economies and safeguard their cultural heritage.
Plastic pollution has a unique and disproportionate impact on SIDS, even though most of these islands are not plastic producers. With small markets, SIDS have limited power to influence multinational brands to reduce plastic packaging, and instead, they face high volumes of imported plastic products. For example, 43% of Barbados’s imports come from the USA, which often includes plastic-packaged goods with few sustainable alternatives.
Geographic isolation and the high costs of waste management further exacerbate the issue. Most SIDS lack the infrastructure to process plastic waste, and the volumes involved often make shipping and recycling prohibitively expensive.
Compounding the problem is the influx of legacy plastic waste, accumulated debris from other countries, washing up on beaches. This legacy waste damages ecosystems and increases clean-up costs for local governments.
Plastic pollution affects fisheries, which depend on clean waters and healthy marine habitats, leading to declines in fish stocks and impacting food security for many island communities. For tourism-reliant economies, the aesthetic and environmental degradation caused by plastic pollution translates into significant economic losses. Plastic pollution also affects fisheries, which depend on clean waters and healthy marine habitats, leading to declines in fish stocks and impacting food security for many island communities.
As plastic waste piles up on their shores, SIDS are left with few options to address this growing problem. Without a comprehensive solution, these islands will continue to shoulder a disproportionate burden from global plastic pollution. A burden to which they contribute very little and cannot bear alone.
In a joint ministerial statement ahead of the fourth round of negotiations, the High Ambition Coalition To End Plastic Pollution called for net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the plastics system. They also stressed the need to align treaty provisions with - among other treaties - the 1.5°C goal of the Paris Agreement on climate change.
Small Island Developing States (SIDS) have consistently demonstrated their capacity to influence global environmental negotiations, most notably through their success in championing the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C target.
As Maxine Burkett noted, in the Paris negotiations, "From metaphor to moral compass... the small island developing states’ vulnerability, dignity, and ambitions served as a rudder."
SIDS' diplomacy and moral authority turned the existential threat of climate change into a rallying cry for global action, shaping the trajectory of international climate policy.
As we approach the final round of negotiations for the global plastics treaty in Busan, SIDS are uniquely positioned to replicate this influence and secure a strong treaty – but now, fellow countries must listen.
SIDS’ advocacy for the 1.5°C target emerged from necessity.
With many countries under threat of extreme weather and flooding at 2°C of warming, for many island nations, limiting warming to 2°C is not an acceptable compromise, it is a death sentence.
Through the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), SIDS made the stark case that survival depended on capping warming at 1.5°C. Their slogan, "1.5 to stay alive," crystallized their demands into a powerful moral imperative.
Despite early resistance, SIDS galvanized support through alliances like the High Ambition Coalition (HAC), a diverse group of nations committed to bold climate action.
This coalition, spearheaded by leaders such as Tony de Brum of the Marshall Islands, brought together small islands, the European Union, the US, and other willing partners, creating a bloc too influential to ignore.
Their efforts ensured the inclusion of the 1.5°C target in the Paris Agreement’s text. A victory that - despite the treaty's other challenges - continues to drive climate policy globally.
In the run-up to Busan, SIDS are channelling the strategies that proved transformative during the Paris climate negotiations.
They have positioned themselves as both vulnerable stakeholders and invaluable partners, urging global cooperation to address plastic pollution comprehensively.
As they did with the High Ambition Coalition for climate, SIDS have been central to rallying collective action within the High Ambition Coalition to End Plastic Pollution. This coalition, which now numbers over 65 countries, has made compelling calls for legally binding measures to phase out problematic plastics and align policies with sustainability goals.
In addition, SIDS represent a quarter of the signatories of the Bridge to Busan declaration, supporting a treaty that addresses the full lifecycle of polymers.
This full lifecycle approach, coupled with a reduction in the production of primary plastic polymers, control of harmful chemicals, and obligations and implementation measure that recognise the special circumstances of SIDS, have emerged as focal points of SIDS’ advocacy in the treaty negotiations.
Echoing their climate demands, SIDS have also stressed the importance of a just transition approach, and prioritising funding mechanisms and technical support to address legacy waste and implement circular economies tailored to island contexts. This will be vital to ensuring that the treaty does not merely shift the burden onto those who have contributed the least to the crisis, and have limited resources to handle it.
SIDS are not isolated victims but harbingers of challenges that, left unchecked, will ripple across oceans and borders.
As with climate change, failure to act on plastics would be catastrophic for SIDS, and for the planet.
But if Busan becomes another example of SIDS leveraging their influence to secure a historic agreement, it will further solidify their legacy as indispensable champions of global environmental stewardship.
Their history of small island states becoming resounding change-makers suggests that SIDS will rise to meet this challenge, ensuring that the treaty becomes a mechanism for meaningful, lasting action.
Now, though, is the time for the global community to join SIDS in accelerating action to agree a strong, globally-binding Plastics Treaty that drives a just transition to a circular economy and a healthy future, freed from plastic.
Small Island States and the Paris Agreement, by Maxine Burkett
HAC Member States Ministerial Joint Statement for INC-5
AOSIS statement on eight key matters for the third round of negotiations
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