Resources

SDCC Seminar Series 2: No Island Left Behind

SDCC Seminar Series 2: No Island Left Behind
- Building Climate Resilience in the World's Most Vulnerable Communities -

Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Room: MC C1-200, Time 12:30 - 2:00pm

Event Description:
The impacts of human-induced climate change represent the most urgent threats to people, planet and prosperity. The immediate and far-reaching affects will pose significant challenges for every nation on Earth, but for Small Island Development States (SIDS) climate change represents nothing less than an existential crisis.

SIDS will be among the first nations to face critical climate change thresholds, despite having contributed little to the growing concentrations of CO2 and other greenhouse gases in our atmosphere. They are heavily exposed to climate sensitive resources and eco-systems, and lack the capacity to adapt to climate shocks as they have insufficient financial, human, knowledge and governance resources.

As natural systems and weather patterns continue to change, SIDS will be more susceptible to extreme weather; loss of biodiversity and delicate eco-systems; changing precipitation patterns and access to water; and sea-level rise. The results are already impacting human and social systems - destroying homes, undermining livelihoods, compromising basic human rights and leading to widespread sickness and loss of life.

For almost two decades, small island states, working together through the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), have argued tirelessly for urgent and ambitions action to stabilize the global climate, earning title of the ”conscience of the Convention”.

Ambassador Friday provided an assessment of climate negotiations, and a small island state perspective on the World Bank's Strategic Framework for Climate Change and Development.

Speaker:
His Excellency Dr Angus Friday, Permanent Representative of Grenada to the United Nations and Chair of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS)
Since presenting his credentials in February 2007 Ambassador Friday has been a tireless spokesperson for the more than forty island nations that form the Alliance of Small Island States. For twenty years the AOSIS nations have sought to inject urgency and ambition into global climate negotiations, earning the title “conscience of the Convention”. Collectively these countries are among the most vulnerable to climate impacts and may be the first nations to face critical climate change thresholds. Ambassador Friday is a medical Doctor by training and has spent a great part of his career to date in the health sector, concentrating on IT and finance. Prior to his UN apportionment, Ambassador Friday worked in the private sector in his native Grenada and was actively involved in developing a finance strategy for Grenada’s National Export Strategy. He has also served on Grenada’s Board of Tourism. As Chair of AOSIS he has been participating in the Bali negotiations and has spoken on climate change in international gatherings around the world.

Discussant:
Professor Daniel Magraw, President of the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL)
Daniel Magraw is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL). Located in Washington, DC, CIEL is a public interest law organization founded in 1989 to use principles of ecology and justice to strengthen international environmental law and protect the global environment and human health. CIEL has recently worked extensively with the Inuit and the government of the Maldives to make the case for a human rights-based approach to climate change. Professor Magraw has previously served as Director of the International Environmental Law Office at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Professor of International Law at the University of Colorado. He has Chaired the American Bar Association Section of International Law and Practice and has practiced international law, constitutional law, and bankruptcy at a DC law firm. He has also worked as an economist and business consultant in India. He continues to lecture on international environmental law and has authored a number of books and articles.

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