Island Futures: Insight into Island Innovation’s 2025 Global Sustainable Islands Summit in St. Kitts & Nevis

Description coming soon — The Global Sustainable Islands Summit reinforced that SIDS are not just vulnerable, they are places of climate innovation, creativity, and resilience.

Overview: SIDS Leading with Urgency and Innovation

While Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are on the frontlines of the climate crisis, facing disproportionate threats to their ecosystems, economies, infrastructure, and cultural heritage, they are also leading the way in innovation, resilience, and sustainability. This was at the heart of the 2025 Global Sustainable Islands Summit (GSIS), held in St. Kitts and Nevis. Over five days of panels, workshops, and field visits, one message echoed throughout: for SIDS, sustainability and climate innovation is not a choice but a necessity. It is a matter of survival.

Zoe Brown, a PhD researcher from The Bahamas, working in the Nature-based Solutions Initiative, attended both the main summit and the two-day Island Youth Forum that preceded it. Her research focuses on the effectiveness of Nature-based Solutions for climate adaptation in SIDS. At GSIS, she engaged with broader island sustainability challenges and contributed to conversations on how NbS can support climate resilience in these unique contexts.

The summit welcomed island voices from across the globe, including participants from Fiji, Mauritius, the Maldives, and beyond. While the Caribbean presence was strong given the summit’s location, the discussions addressed challenges and opportunities that resonate across all island regions: food and water security, a just energy transition, sustainable tourism, climate mobility, and the safeguarding of cultural heritage in the face of climate-driven change. Importantly, these conversations extended beyond the conference room; Attendees engaged in tree planting, farm visits, and national park hikes, highlighting the importance of rooting discussions around climate solutions in place and lived experience.

Island Youth Forum: Amplifying Marginalized Voices

A prequel event, the Island Youth Forum, held on May 25 and 26, focused on elevating the perspectives of those who will inherit the consequences of today’s decisions. Youth delegates articulated clear priorities, including the need for genuine, not just symbolic, inclusion in climate policymaking. The forum called for a shift toward decision-making that includes youth from diverse backgrounds not just as participants, but as formalized partners in shaping strategy towards climate-resilient futures. These action points were shared at the GSIS opening ceremony, where youth representatives spoke directly to regional and international political leaders and policymakers.

Key Themes from GSIS 2025 (May 27 – 29)

Sustainable Island State Agenda (SISA)

One of the conference’s central events was the launch of the Sustainable Island State Agenda (SISA), developed by the government of St. Kitts and Nevis. The agenda offers a roadmap to 2040 built around seven pillars for sustainable transformation: water security, energy transition, food security, sustainable industry, sustainable settlements, circular economy, and social protection and health. It includes mechanisms for monitoring and review, aiming to position St. Kitts as “the world’s first sustainable island state,” to quote the nation’s Prime Minister, Hon. Dr. Terrance M. Drew.

Notably, biodiversity and ecosystems were absent as standalone pillars. Until the full SISA text is released, it remains unclear how ecological goals will be addressed, whether they are integrated as key criteria within other pillars or envisioned as outcomes of the agenda. This also leaves uncertainty around the role of NbS in enabling climate adaptation in SIDS. Its importance is clear, but this reflects a broader trend where conservation is often sidelined in development frameworks, despite its deep interconnection with other sustainability goals.

Nature-based Solutions: Limited but Promising Mentions

NbS featured in conference discussions, though mostly in the context of food security and cultural heritage. Examples included indigenous food-forest restoration in Aruba and the adaptive reuse of biodiversity-rich heritage sites. However, there was little mention of NbS for water security, coastal protection, or flood reduction, which are critical climate risks affecting small islands. This aligns with findings from Brown’s systematic review, which shows that NbS projects in SIDS report a disproportionate focus on food and agriculture-related climate risks, over other climate threats affecting SIDS, particularly coastal threats.

Circular Economy and Innovation

Sessions on the circular economy showcased creative approaches to waste management, emphasizing the need to rethink and restructure systems so that the outputs of one industry can serve as the inputs for another. Innovation in materials and architectural design was presented as central to sustainable island development, offering practical insights into how small economies can reduce waste and reimagine growth in more sustainable ways.

Barriers to Adaptation

Discussions acknowledged that the resource-constrained environments of SIDS can hinder climate adaptation planning and implementation. Regional partnerships and funding bodies, such as CARICOM and the Caribbean Biodiversity Fund, were highlighted as critical to scaling adaptation efforts, alongside broader international collaboration.

In some cases, cultural shifts were viewed as necessary to enable adaptation. This included rethinking food systems that, while culturally important, may contribute to vulnerability. For example, reducing the Caribbean’s dependence on food imports, which currently account for around 80% of food consumed, may require changes in consumer taste and preferences. The use of tilapia from aquaculture systems was discussed as one potential solution to strengthen food security, though cultural preferences for marine over freshwater fish in some regions remain a barrier. Similarly, innovations like raising black soldier fly larvae for livestock feed, rather than relying on imports, reflect both the creativity and cultural adaptation needed to build resilience and sustainability in SIDS.

Climate Mobility and Cultural Continuity

Discussions on climate mobility were the most poignant and powerful conversations had during the event. Despite best efforts to adapt to climate change, the reality remains that some island communities may eventually be forced to migrate. A speaker from Tuvalu spoke movingly about efforts to preserve the nation’s cultural identity through the metaverse, creating a form of “virtual nationhood” should the physical island be lost to rising seas.

These conversations also raised discussions around equity concerns: Who gets to move? It was highlighted that too often, mobility is accessible only to the able-bodied, educated, and financially secure, while the most vulnerable are left behind. There was also discussion of the tension between planning for ‘worst-case scenario’ climate-driven displacement and securing investment for present-day adaptation, as narratives of “inevitable loss” can discourage funding for adaptation efforts.

Reflections: Toward Resilient Island Futures

The Global Sustainable Islands Summit reinforced that SIDS are not just vulnerable, they are places of climate innovation, creativity, and resilience. Far from passive recipients of the climate challenges unjustly posed to them, island nations are actively charting paths toward resilience and sustainable futures. Equity was a recurring thread, with calls to ensure that youth, women, and people with disabilities are fully represented in climate-related decision-making processes. Without inclusive governance, adaptation strategies risk reinforcing existing inequalities. As sustainability agendas like SISA emerge, there is hope that equity, as well as nature and biodiversity, will be recognised as fundamental to every pillar of sustainable development and a key component to secure resilient island futures.