Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS)
The Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) is a coalition of Small Island Developing Nations (SIDS) and low-lying coastal countries, established in 1990 to address environmental and economic challenges posed by climate change. Comprising members such as Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Fiji, and the Seychelles, AOSIS represents approximately 5 percent of the global population and aims to amplify the collective voice of its small member states in international discussions, particularly within the United Nations framework.
AOSIS focuses on the unique difficulties these nations face due to global warming, including rising sea levels, increased flooding risks, and more frequent tropical storms, which threaten their economies and freshwater supplies. The alliance has played an influential role in climate negotiations, notably advocating for significant greenhouse gas emission reductions and participating in key conferences like COP-1 and COP-19. AOSIS emphasizes the principle that those most responsible for environmental damage should bear the greatest responsibility for mitigation efforts.
Despite its active participation, AOSIS encounters ongoing challenges in securing commitments from industrialized nations to address emissions, reflecting the urgent needs of its member states that are acutely vulnerable to climate impacts. Through collaboration and consensus, AOSIS continues to work towards sustainable solutions and international cooperation to combat climate change and its effects on small island nations.
Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS)
Date: Established 1991
Mission
A coalition of Small Island Developing Nations (SIDS) and low-lying coastal nations, the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) speaks collectively about environmental concerns and issues affecting economic growth. Established in 1990, AOSIS includes Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Cape Verde, Comoros, the Cook Islands, Cuba, Cyprus, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, the Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Grenada, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, São Tomé and Principe, the Seychelles, Singapore, the Solomon Islands, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu. American Samoa, Guam, the Netherlands Antilles, and the U.S. Virgin Islands are officially recognized as AOSIS observers. The alliance’s member states, thirty-seven of which are also members of the United Nations, represent about 5 percent of the world’s population.
Because of their small size and proximity to water, AOSIS nations face several common challenges as global warming progresses. Warming seawater causes sea levels to rise, increasing the dangers of flooding and of salt water flowing into freshwater supplies. Warmer water also increases the frequency and the intensity of tropical storms and disrupts corals and fish that are important to these nations’ economies. In addition to climate change, island and coastal nations are threatened by spilling and dumping from the large freighters operated by larger industrialized nations.
Headquartered in New York City, New York, AOSIS has no formal charter or budget and works through collaboration and consensus within the structures of the United Nations. It works to present a unified voice to amplify the influence of its small member states and educate and persuade larger nations. In 1999, AOSIS hosted the Workshop on the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol, with fifty participants, including guests from the Philippines, Mauritania, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Norway, New Zealand, and and Switzerland. A second workshop in 2000 produced a joint statement of cooperation between AOSIS and Italy and was followed by a third workshop in 2001—sponsored by the governments of New Zealand, Norway, and Switzerland—and the 2005 Conference of the Parties to the Climate Change Convention (COP-11).
AOSIS participates in international negotiations on climate change, particularly through the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). In 2007, AOSIS submitted a proposal for long-term cooperative action to address climate change, underscoring several basic principles: Nations must take care that activities within their control do not harm other nations; precautionary measures must be taken to protect future generations; the most vulnerable parties to the UNFCCC must be protected; and those who create the most environmental damage must assume the greatest amount of responsibility for reversing it. The goal of the AOSIS proposal was to keep long-term global temperature increases below 2° Celsius.
Significance for Climate Change
AOSIS presented an active and influential voice in the drafting of the UNFCCC at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992. At the First Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC (COP-1), held in Berlin in 1995, AOSIS submitted a draft protocol calling for a 20 percent reduction, based on 1990 levels, of greenhouse gas emissions by 2005. Although the specifics of the so-called AOSIS Protocol were not adopted, the language and the vision of the protocol informed subsequent negotiations leading to the Berlin Mandate and the Kyoto Protocol.
AOSIS made up one of the largest unified coalitions at COP-1 and succeeded in persuading larger nations that its cause was just. At the 2013 Warsaw United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP19) and at the 2015 Paris United Nations Climate Change Conference, AOSIS continued to advocate for funding and awareness concerning the immediate dangers climate change poses to their member nations. Their efforts successfully aided in the inclusion of the Paris Agreement’s Article 8.
International climate negotiations continually improve their understanding that small nations should be represented based on the amount of risk they face rather than on population or economic power. Although AOSIS participates actively in international education and negotiation, it is the group of nations most seriously threatened by global warming. The member nations have benefited internally from projects leading to enhanced energy technologies, and in 2010, AOSIS was awarded the Frederick Anderson Climate Change Award by the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL). Despite the group’s repeated calls for industrialized nations to reduce their own emissions in order to slow sea-level rise, they have largely gone unheeded.
Bibliography
Acharya, Anjali. “Small Islands: Awash in a Sea of Troubles.” World Watch 8, no. 6 (November/December, 1995): 24-33. Describes the ecological challenges faced by small island nations and argues that the formation of AOSIS is a good first step for these nations to take control of their own interests.
Bolon, Cecelia. “1.5 To Stay Alive: The Influence of Aosis in International Climate Negotiations.” E-International Relations, June 2018, www.e-ir.info/2018/11/17/1-5-to-stay-alive-the-influence-of-aosis-in-international-climate-negotiations/. Accessed 11 Jan. 2023.
Bowness, Nicholas, and Alina Zyszkowski. Small Islands, Big Issues: sustainable development of Islands. Washington, D.C.: Counterpart International, 1997. This report covers the action plan for the “Sustainable Development of Small Island States,” drafted in Barbados in 1994, and profiles the AOSIS member states.
“Not Enough Money to Keep Small Islands Afloat.” Africa News Wire, December 14, 2007. A news story reporting the AOSIS response to the new Adaptation Fund, meant to help vulnerable nations cope with global warming, negotiated at the United Nations climate conference in Bali in 2007.
Roberts, J. Timmons, and Bradley C. Parks. A Climate of Injustice: Global Inequality, North-South Politics, and Climate Policy. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2006. Analyzes why underdeveloped southern nations, including small island states, are reluctant to cooperate with wealthier, more polluting northern countries to solve the global climate crisis.
“Submissions from Parties to the ADP (2012-2013).” United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, United Nations, 2013, unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/conferences/past-conferences/bangkok-climate-change-conference-august-2012/adp-1-informal-session/submissions-from-parties-to-the-adp-2012-2013. Accessed 11 Jan. 2023.
“2010 Frederick Anderson Climate Change Award Recipient - Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS).” Center for International Environmental Law, www.ciel.org/about-us/2010-frederick-anderson-climate-change-award-recipient-alliance-of-small-island-states-aosis/. Accessed 11 Jan. 2023.
Wilford, Michael. “Law: Sea-Level Rise and Insurance.” Environment 35, no. 4 (May, 1993): 2-5. Explains how the AOSIS, concerned about rising sea levels, has formed an international insurance pool to share the risks of drastic climate change.