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© 2025 Island Innovation. All rights reserved.

    News

    Curated stories and analysis from islands and sustainability leaders worldwide.

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    Showing 9 of 251 news items in Policy & Governance
    The Canary Islands reject a national climate pact that ignores the archipelago's unique characteristics
    Policy & GovernanceOctober 13, 2025

    The Canary Islands reject a national climate pact that ignores the archipelago's unique characteristics

    Excerpt from gobiernodecanarias.org The Canary Islands Commission for Climate Action and Energy, meeting for the second time, calls for an agreement based on technical and consensus, not a mere political gesture, that includes aspects not included in the current Pact, such as the impact on the oceans, rising sea levels, or haze. The Committee of Experts, a member of this Commission, agrees and insists that the agreement must strengthen existing laws, citing as an example the Canary Islands Climate Change Law, one of the most advanced in the country. This Commission, whose objective is the coordination between the different Ministries of the Government for the effective application of the Law on Climate Change and Energy Transition of the Canary Islands, also agreed to the creation of a technical working group made up of the different areas of the Executive

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    China could shore up Scarborough Shoal control with artificial island: analyst
    Policy & GovernanceSeptember 30, 2025

    China could shore up Scarborough Shoal control with artificial island: analyst

    Excerpt from scmp.com China could build an artificial island at the fiercely contested Scarborough Shoal to shore up control of the surrounding waters if its newly established nature reserve fails to stem challenges by the Philippines, a prominent Chinese scholar on the dispute has said. But a final decision would boil down to control, cost and confrontation, according to Wu Shicun of the National Institute for South China Sea Studies, a government-sponsored think tank. A major consideration would be “whether it serves to strengthen China’s assertion of sovereignty and effective administrative control”, Shanghai-based news site Guancha quoted Wu as saying in an interview published on Sunday.

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    Why a tiny island's fate could decide Seychelles' next president
    Policy & GovernanceSeptember 30, 2025

    Why a tiny island's fate could decide Seychelles' next president

    Excerpt from bbc.com A tiny, almost barren island in the Indian Ocean has become a battleground in this weekend's elections in Seychelles, prompting global environmental concern. Assumption Island, in the western Indian Ocean, possesses little at first glance that would set even the most curious and intrepid traveller's pulse racing. Stripped almost bare and blisteringly hot, with few man-made structures, it covers an area similar to London's Heathrow Airport and is, arguably, only slightly more scenic. Yet this tropical island anomaly - both geographically remote, and far from the popular ideal of lush paradise - has become a hotspot for geopolitical powers and eco-warriors, plus a political lightning rod in Seychelles, the country that owns it. Situated 1,140km (700 miles) from Seychelles' most populous main island, tourist-friendly Mahé, Assumption Island is a sausage-shaped, coralline finger of low-level scrub, fringed by casuarina trees. It was ravaged for its nitrogen-rich guano (seabird droppings) and agricultural use ended decades ago. But now, Assumption Island's strategic position and ecological value is priceless.

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    PM Mottley to UN: Stop treating small islands like children
    Policy & GovernanceSeptember 30, 2025

    PM Mottley to UN: Stop treating small islands like children

    Excerpt from guardian.co.tt ​Akash Samaroo Reporting from UNGA in New York ​Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley has called on the United Nations to desist from treating some countries like “children” and to reform its Security Council to include permanent seats for small island developing states (SIDS) and African nations. Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly yesterday, Mottley said the UN Security Council must reflect the “multipolar” world that exists now and recognise that there have been substantial geopolitical shifts since 1962, the last time the council was reformed. Mottley boldly told the UN that SIDS and African countries cannot be used for convenience. “We all have perspectives that must be heard. You cannot ask us really, to show up for family photos and votes when you need them and then exclude us from the family’s decision-making as if you are the grown-ups and we are the children. We are not minors,” she said. Mottley added, “We are independent sovereign states with full capacity and we insist on being treated as such.”

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    Pacific islands freeze out US and China at annual summit
    Policy & GovernanceSeptember 17, 2025

    Pacific islands freeze out US and China at annual summit

    Caption: Jeremiah Manele, prime minister of the Solomon Islands, opens the annual Pacific Islands Forum in Honiara on Monday. Photo credit: Ma Ping / Xinhua via Alamy Excerpt from ft.com Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of FT.com T&Cs and Copyright Policy. Email licensing@ft.com to buy additional rights. Subscribers may share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service. Pacific island leaders gathering in the Solomon Islands this week have adopted a novel strategy to prevent US-China tensions from overshadowing the region’s most important annual summit: inviting neither. The Pacific Islands Forum — which brings together 18 countries ranging from tiny island nations Tuvalu and Niue to regional heavyweights Australia and New Zealand — has been dominated in recent years by an escalating competition for influence between China and western allies. Pacific island countries have also been riven over recognition of Taiwan, over which Beijing claims sovereignty. Three of Taiwan’s 12 diplomatic allies — Palau, Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands — are in the Pacific, and Taipei is one of about 20 external partners to the PIF, sending representatives to its annual summits alongside countries such as the US, China and Japan.

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    Smaller Island States Leaders Set Priorities Ahead of Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting - Island Times
    Policy & GovernanceSeptember 17, 2025

    Smaller Island States Leaders Set Priorities Ahead of Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting - Island Times

    Excerpt from islandtimes.org HONIARA, Solomon Islands (Sept. 8, 2025) — “The unity and clarity of purpose that we show here will set the tone for the rest of our deliberations in Honiara,” Kiribati President Taneti Maamau said Monday as he opened the Small Island States (SIS) Leaders Meeting, the first gathering leading into the 54th Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting later this week. Leaders of the SIS grouping — representing some of the Pacific’s most vulnerable nations — are meeting in Honiara to address pressing priorities that include securing reliable air and sea transport, advancing fisheries development, strengthening health systems, and improving access to climate finance. The SIS group is made up of Kiribati, Palau, Tuvalu, Nauru, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and Niue. Together, they represent some of the smallest populations in the Pacific Islands Forum but face some of the region’s most severe challenges, from climate change impacts to economic viability and connectivity barriers.

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    Historic vote paves the way for Chagos Islands' return to Mauritius
    Policy & GovernanceSeptember 17, 2025

    Historic vote paves the way for Chagos Islands' return to Mauritius

    Excerpt from africanews.com The long-standing issue of the Chagos Islands has taken a significant turn this week, as the British House of Commons voted in favor of a bill supporting the retrocession of the archipelago to Mauritius. On September 9, 2025, the legislation passed with a vote of 330 to 174. This bill affirms Mauritian sovereignty over the islands while allowing for Diego Garcia to remain under a 99-year Anglo-American military lease. In addition, it promises substantial financial support to both the Mauritian government and the Chagossian community. Chagossians residing in Mauritius are expressing a renewed sense of hope regarding their dream of returning to their ancestral lands. The drive for Mauritian sovereignty over the Chagos Islands is rooted in a painful history. In 1965, just three years before Mauritius gained independence, the British government detached the Chagos from Mauritian territory at the request of Washington. The inhabitants were subsequently evacuated and relocated to Mauritius and the Seychelles, where they have waited for decades for the chance to return to their homeland. One of the last remnants of the British Empire, the Chagos Islands have been under U.K. control since 1814. Britain split the islands away from Mauritius, a former British colony, in 1965, three years before Mauritius gained independence.

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    Don’t forget the islands - Ireland and Cyprus nudge EU on funding
    Policy & GovernanceSeptember 16, 2025

    Don’t forget the islands - Ireland and Cyprus nudge EU on funding

    Excerpt from irishtimes.com Ireland and Cyprus have appealed to the European Commission not to forget about island states when thinking about how to shake up the EU’s trillion-euro budget for funding schemes and subsidies. Correspondence shows behind the scenes Government lobbying to protect EU funding for transport projects, which have helped finance works in the ports of Dublin, Cork and Rosslare. The commission – the EU’s executive branch that proposes laws – has pitched for an expanded €2 trillion budget that would overhaul Common Agricultural Policy (Cap) payments to farmers and many other funding schemes. The proposal is just the starting point for two years of negotiations to agree the size of the EU’s next seven-year budget, which will run from 2028 onwards.

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    Top court delivers a ‘huge’ climate win for island nations
    Policy & GovernanceSeptember 16, 2025

    Top court delivers a ‘huge’ climate win for island nations

    Excerpt from news.mongabay.com The recent advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on states’ obligations regarding climate change was celebrated globally for providing clarity on countries’ legal obligation to prevent climate harm, but was also appreciated by island nations for its additional certainty on their maritime boundaries remaining intact regardless of sea level rise. This week on Mongabay’s podcast, environmental lawyer Angelique Pouponneau, a Seychelles native and lead negotiator for the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), explains these victories, their legal implications, and how they matter for small island nations. She says Small Island Developing States (SIDS) face a multitude of climate impacts, “one of which [was] this idea of the shrinking exclusive economic zones.”

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