Narendra Modi, Boris Johnson to launch infrastructure resilience project for small island nations at COP26 today

India — headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi — and the United Kingdom lead by Boris Johnson, will together launch the initiative for the Resilient Island States (IRIS) for developing infrastructure of small island nations, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said on Tuesday while briefing the media.

This critical initiative is expected to be one of the biggest highlights at the COP26 meeting in Scotland’s Glasgow. Briefing the media, Shringla said, “You have a special session that would be the launch of the initiative for Resilient Island States (IRIS), which is essentially part of the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) that would focus on building capacity, having pilot projects, especially in small island developing states that would also involve in some senses setting up norms and standards for resilient infrastructure.”

During the press briefing, the Foreign Secretary also updated that Australia will also be a vital “partner in this effort”.

The project is an outcome of PM Modi’s concerns over the loss of lives and livelihoods and entire infrastructure, housing during natural calamities, as per Shringla. “This is an effort to try and equip countries that are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change,” Shringla said during the presser, as per ANI.

The inauguration session of IRIS will be addressed by several leaders of small island states. The list of leaders includes Prime Minister of Fiji, Frank Bainimarama; Jamaican prime minister, Andrew Holness, PM of Mauritius, Pravind Jugnauth and Secretary-General of UN, Antonio Guterres.

The Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) is an initiative announced by India at the United Nations General Assembly in 2019. Under this, India, Australia and UK are likely to pledge $10 million each for the project and other CDRI initiatives. Other countries are also likely to contribute. Japan and US have offered support in kind, mainly in technical expertise.

Reiterating the need for such a programme, a World Bank report titled ‘Climate and Disaster Resilient Transport in Small Island Developing States’ had revealed that these countries are highly susceptible to economic losses due to disasters with average annual losses ranging from 1 percent to 10 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP).

Additionally, the UN Global Assessment Report of 2017 revealed that these nations also have the highest multi-hazard risks relative to the size of their capital stock.

A perfect instance of a small island suffering at the hands of climate change was when Fiji was destroyed by Category 5 Cyclone Winston in February of 2016. The cyclone killed 44 people, damaged 40,000 houses, hundreds of schools and took out much of the country’s infrastructure and transportation.

With inputs from ANI