With less than two months left before the start of the 2025 Global Sustainable Islands Summit (GSIS) co-hosted by Island Innovation and the Government of St Kitts and Nevis, preparations are well underway across the Twin Islands. The Summit includes specialized Forums aimed at empowering island communities and highlighting local projects having a global impact – the Island Youth Forum (May 25-26, St Kitts), Geothermal Energy Forum (May 26, Nevis), and the 1st Forum on Access to Climate Finance for Sub-National Island Jurisdictions (May 30, Nevis).
Since the first set of high-level government representatives and international experts were announced in March, the following speakers have been confirmed:
- Albert Bryan Jr., Governor, U.S. Virgin Islands
- Lourdes A. Leon Guerrero, Governor, Guam
- Fernando Clavijo, President of the Government of the Canary Islands
- Mukhtar Babayev, COP29 President & Minister for Ecology & Natural Resources, Government of Azerbaijan
- Vanessa Toré, Director of Foreign Economic Cooperation, Ministry of Economic Development, Government of Curaçao
- Lavern Mcfarlane, Senior Economist, Chief Underwriter, CARICOM Development Fund
- D’Jamila Ward, Regional Director, Commonwealth Caribbean, Department for Business and Trade, British High Commission
- Mohammad Rafik Nagdee, Executive Director, The Caribbean Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (CCREEE)
- Daniel Kammen, Chair, Energy and Resources Group, UC Berkeley
Over 300 attendees are expected to partake in the Summit and its Forums, where island stakeholders will discuss the latest developments in sustainability, and how islanders can leverage them to build a prosperous future. To increase accessibility to the Summit, organizers have partnered with island-focused development fund Our Shared Ocean, and the UNFCCC’s Youth for Capacity programme to sponsor the participation of 20 young people working in advocacy, research, and policy in Small Island Developing States (SIDS) around the world.
Several sponsors from key industries and sectors have also stepped forward, highlighting their commitment to building stronger, more sustainable island communities. These include Sustainable Travel International, geothermal energy giant Ormat Technologies; the St Christopher and Nevis Conservation Foundation; and Haitian regional airline, Sunrise Airways.
In addition to these sponsors, a multitude of partners are supporting the GSIS, including the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), the Government of Curaçao, the Cabinet Special Envoy for Bonaire, Eustatius, and Saba, the Global Island Partnership (GLISPA), and Small Islands Organisation (SMILO).
“Our government made a commitment in 2022 to transform St Kitts and Nevis to a sustainable island state – to focus on projects that protected the environment, our biodiversity, dealt with pollution, provided energy security, and also had to protect peoples’ livelihoods and ensure that they survive the climate crisis,” explains the Hon. Senator Dr. Joyelle Clarke, Minister of Sustainable Development, Environment and Climate Action and Constituency Empowerment, highlighting the importance of collaboration and partnerships between island stakeholders to reach resilience goals, “[GSIS] provides five days of meaningful conservation, of dialogue, action planning, pathways, and how island nations can build resilience to climate change together. No country is going to do this alone, no island nation is going to do this alone, and thats why over 300 people from island nations across the world will be here in St Kitts and Nevis.”
Speaking on the wider importance of participating in the summit, the Hon. Konris Maynard, Minister of Public Infrastructure, Energy and Utilities, Domestic Transport, Information, Communication and Technology and Posts notes that, “This is a moment to be part of history. We are on a path to make St Kitts and Nevis the first fully sustainable island state in the Western hemisphere and perhaps even the world. By being a part of this conference you will be able to record your name as being in the center of where an example of sustainability will be emerging. This is the place to understand how a whole country can consider itself completely sustainable and be able to weather impacts of energy, food, water shortages that are engulfing the world at the moment.”
