This year’s UN summit on climate change - formally known as the 27th meeting of the Conference of Parties on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 27) - was the proverbial curate’s egg: good in parts.For many observers, one good outcome was the further cemented image of our Prime Minister as a leading voice in the international advocacy for a change in the global political climate in the fight against an existential threat to our planet created by human activity. This is capital in the political and diplomatic bank, for herself, her nation and her region.And yet, the struggle on behalf of small island developing states - nations on the frontline of climate change that sees the withering impact of severe weather, be they hurricanes, floods or droughts - is but a significant handover of a great relay race that began in earnest here in Barbados in 1994: the UN Global Conference on the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States (SIDS).
