The Institute for European Studies and the Islands and Small States Institute
promoted a special issue on:
‘Development and Climate Change in Small Island Developing States'
Dr Stefano Moncada, lecturer at the Institute for European Studies, and Prof. Lino Briguglio, Director of the Islands and Small States Institute, guest-edited a special issue on the theme of development and climate change in Small Island Developing States (SIDS), published by the International Journal of Climate Change Strategies and Management (Emerald). The other two guest-editors were Dr Ilan Kelman from University College London (UCL), and Prof. Hilary Bambrick, from Queensland University of Technology (QUT).
The special issue contains seven original research papers, among which one by Pro-Rector Prof. Godfrey Baldacchino, entitled ‘Seizing history: development and non-climate change in Small Island Developing States’. The key issues discussed in the publication are summarised by the guest editorial, which highlights that although attention toward the challenges faced by SIDS due to climate change is gaining momentum, lack of data and research capacity remains a major problem. This is especially true for the world’s most impoverished and vulnerable communities in SIDS, which paradoxically are frequently neglected even in research about SIDS’ climate change impacts and adaptation. The research papers try to fill this gap, by also assessing how specific development interventions can enhance adaptation, and how funds for addressing the negative effects of climate change could be fairly, and equitably, distributed.