A Deep Dive Into Ocean-related Measures in the Nationally Determined Contributions of Small Island Developing States

This technical note aims to provide an analysis of measures in the NDCs of SIDS which target the oceans, to gain a better understanding of the level of ambition of these countries and their strategies to sustainably develop ocean economies and conserve the ocean and marine ecosystems. Increasing knowledge of ocean measures used in the NDCs of SIDS will be fundamental as they prepare to submit their updated NDCs to the thirtieth Conference of the Parties (COP) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 2025. This note provides a detailed analysis of the most recent NDCs submitted by 39 SIDS in terms of oceans measures listed, approaches used, level of conditionality and their relationship to trade. It reveals that SIDS have placed particular attention on adapting to the immediate effects of climate change and building long-term resilience through adaptive responses. In fact, adaptation measures represented 77 per cent of total ocean measures, while mitigation measures accounted for the remaining 23 per cent. The low share of mitigation measures can be explained by the fact that SIDS contribute less than 1 per cent of global greenhouse gas (GHG) combined emissions but disproportionately suffer from the damaging impacts of climate change, with some of these countries potentially becoming uninhabitable in the future. Only 3 per cent of ocean measures (or 19 measures) were explicitly labelled by countries as advancing loss and damage measures.