Climate change has put a number of small island states in danger from rising sea levels that threaten to swallow them and the lives of the people living in those countries. One of the key issues discussed during the World Ocean Conference (WOC) in Manado was on efforts taken by the international community to help these countries from the destructive impacts of climate change. The Jakarta Post's Abdul Khalik talked with Desima Williams, the delegation head of Grenada, a small island country in the Caribbean that is vulnerable to climate change impacts, on how her country and other small island states can attempt to overcome their challenges. Below is an excerpt of the interview.

Question: How does climate change adversely affect your country and other small island states?

Answer: Most of our activities, including economics and politics, have been conducted along our coastal areas. Also, most of our infrastructure - roads, buildings and electricity - are connected to the coasts and oceans. So what happens to the ocean will greatly affect us.

We have lived by the ocean for a very long time, and can predict the waves and the climate accurately. But what is new is that because of the changes, we can no longer know how the ocean behaves.

New research and studies have found the scale of the changes are so massive they require global conventions and international attention.

What steps are you taking to deal with the fallout from climate change?

We campaign on two fronts for our country - sustainable development and climate change. You see, we produce less than 1 percent of world's total emissions, but we suffer a proportion of climate change impacts that threatens our lives. So there is an imbalance there. We will not use such an imbalance as a way to point fingers, but to point out that we have a common but differentiated responsibility.

We have formed the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) to coordinate our diplomacy at the international level. It is a coalition of small island and low-lying coastal countries that share similar development challenges and concerns about the environment, especially their vulnerability to the adverse effects of global climate change.

AOSIS has a membership of 43 states from all oceans and regions of the world: Africa, the Caribbean, the Indian Ocean, the Mediterranean, the Pacific Ocean and the South China Sea. Thirty-seven AOSIS members are UN members.

We have asked for deep cuts in carbon emissions to reduce the rate of climate change and for transfer of technology to allow us adapt to climate change.

How do you see the conference and the Manado Ocean Declaration?

It is a good conference because most ocean countries have gathered here to address the impact of climate change on countries like ours. We are satisfied also with the declaration. It's a good start.

There is good attention to adaptation programs and funding, and I think it is a political document too as it also calls for the cautious use of oceans and for tabling it at the UN talks in Copenhagen. We have eight months before Copenhagen, and I think the Manado declaration is a key building block for including oceans in climate talks.

Remember, there were no formal talks on oceans and climate change before the Manado conference.

With the support of other ocean members, how optimistic are you of pushing oceans as part of the post-Kyoto Protocol regime?

We hope we can unite to push for such a move. In earlier meetings, we stuck together with Indonesia and other countries to fight for common goals. Now, we have an agenda and we have the numbers, as well as the opportunity to campaign for our agenda, so we are optimistic we can push it in Copenhagen.

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