When Worlds Collide #120: Asia’s smallest state Maldives faces big climate threats

Text of my ‘When Worlds Collide’ column published in Ceylon Today newspaper on 5  September 2014

Small island nations are in focus this week, as well as throughout this year.

The Third International Conference on Small Island Developing States (SIDS) was held from 1 to 4 September 2014 in Apia, Samoa, in the Pacific. Its theme was “sustainable development of SIDS through genuine and durable partnerships“.

The United Nations, convener of the conference, has also designated 2014 as the International Year of Small Island Developing States (details at: www.sids2014.org). The year is meant to express global solidarity with the small island states around the world.

SIDS was first recognised as a distinctive group around the time of the first Earth Summit in 1992. They are low-lying coastal countries sharing many development challenges, including small populations, limited natural resources, remoteness, susceptibility to disasters and fragile environments. Many are…