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Climate change is a global reality and all food production sectors are badly affected by this phenomenon. Aquaculture, the fastest growing food production sector is not an exception. Thousands of Indian aqua-farmers are facing problems pertaining to production and profit in the sector. The current paper discusses the issues of climate change on the aquaculture sector in Kerala which is a small state in India. The efforts undertaken by the Government towards mitigating the problems and the way forward are also detailed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the Commonwealth's inclusive role in engaging with the distinctive challenges of education provision in small states, an agenda that is often neglected elsewhere. We examine the origins of Commonwealth work on education in small states, the nature of its comparative advantage, its role in facilitating small states' engagement with international education dialogue and regional co-operation, and the demand and potential for ongoing Commonwealth support for education. Particular attention is given to experience within the Caribbean region and to the potential for the Commonwealth and the wider international community to learn from small states in the light of their distinctive educational challenges, achievements and priorities – and, most notably, their experience at the 'sharp end' of environmental uncertainty and climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The election of the Labor government in 2007 appeared to usher in a new era of EU-Australian relations with a greater focus on those areas of agreement between Australia and the EU. This paper therefore explores the potential for closer cooperation between the EU and Australia in the area of sustainable development. It takes climate change as a 'litmus test' for the EU-Australia relationship due to the prominence given to the issue by both the EU and Australia and the contentious nature of the issue in relations between the EU and Australia under the previous government. After outlining the major tenets of the 'new era' under the Rudd government, those areas of policy divergence and convergence and thus opportunities for closer cooperation are highlighted and the residual issues that could offer opportunities for closer cooperation. It is concluded that these residual issues hinder developments in the relationship, but more signs of a new relationship are seen than previously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper begins by examining the reasons behind most failures of governance, including fault lines in institutional and professional specialisation, and in ideology. These three, forever competing within and between themselves, frustrate attempts to find solutions to some of the world's most pressing challenges. Not least among these are environmental challenges, where preferences and priorities that are geographically, professionally or ideologically narrow inevitably fail to achieve solutions for the greater good. What role can the Commonwealth play in addressing the fracture lines that bedevil solutions for climate change and biodiversity? It may help to stimulate global action on these issues if it can encourage agreement across multidimensional global boundaries. We know the Commonwealth is not a leading global force for controlling climate change or biodiversity loss; but if it had the political will it could be an exemplar of how, between a group of vastly diverse countries across the globe—and on the global political stage—binding agreement and positive action on climate change and biodiversity could be promoted and perhaps achieved. One of the strongest features of the Commonwealth is the generation of long-standing legal and ethical norms whose appeal is obvious even if their implementation is lacking. These norms should not be limited to the rule of law, democracy and human rights, but should include environmental norms because these too are fundamental to a satisfactory human condition. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Australia and Canada have been active participants in international climate change negotiations since the early 1990s and have often shared negotiating positions. This paper discusses why, in spite of considerable similarities in national circumstances, the Canadian government chose to ratify the Kyoto Protocol in 2002, while the Australian government decided against doing so. It is argued that a range of factors led to a narrower conception of the national interest in the case of Australia, which encouraged a focus on the short-term, economic costs of implementing the Protocol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia's climate change relationship with developing countries is framed by the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. Under those agreements, Australia has committed to take a lead in cutting greenhouse gas emissions and to provide technological and financial support to developing countries. In practice, Australian governments of both political hues have adopted a somewhat ambiguous and ambivalent attitude to developing countries within climate change politics and their fulfilment of those commitments has been uneven. This is particularly so if the concept of the 'Global South' is expanded from developing countries to include those people who are vulnerable to the environmental, social and economic impacts of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glaring inequality is a feature of the Commonwealth's diversity. Most countries of the Commonwealth are developing countries in regions with high exposure to climate change impacts. Its 25 Small Island Developing States and 14 least developed countries face disproportionately high exposure to adverse consequences and face water scarcity brought on by droughts and melting glaciers, floods, destructive tropical storms, storm surges and rising sea levels. The global COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted countries having systemic and interconnected exposure to exogenous threats like climate change. Examining the relationships between income, poverty and carbon inequality within the Commonwealth may offer insights on how stronger cooperation based on the principle of 'equality in partnership' could be implemented to mobilise more resources and action to tackle climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The international development effort over the last fifty years has been characterised by overlapping phases of what may be termed paternalism, conditionality, intervention, targetry and governance. There have been some successes, most notably the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. But there have also been failures, especially those resulting from poorly thought through military intervention. The elimination of absolute poverty in developing countries now requires a sustained effort to strengthen the instruments which underpin accountable governance. DFID, widely admired for its ability to deploy those instruments, should remain an independent Department of the UK Government, focusing sharply on Africa, governance and the threat posed by climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the discussion on Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in the Rwandan capital in June 2022. Topics include African summit' linking to over-arching challenges of climate change, sustainability, and vaccine inequality turning into a test over peace, security, sovereignty, and even unity of purpose; and Putin's illegal invasion and reckless targeting of civilians leading to headlines of war crimes and genocide.

The article discusses the climate change and the active participation of small states in international organisations. Topics include Fiji's role as president of the Conference of the Parties (COP23), the success of the Alliance of Small Island States in New York, and the opening of small states' offices in Geneva with the help of the Commwealth Office and Switzerland.

The Abbott Coalition government, elected to office in Australia in September 2013, has not had a major focus on the developing world. Nevertheless, in terms of substance this government has been engaged with a number of issues that relate to, or have implications for, the developing world. At a general level these issues concern development cooperation, refugees and asylum seekers, and climate change. At a regional level Australia has had particular concerns relating to Indonesia and the Pacific island countries; there has also been some focus on India and Indian Ocean regionalism. Beyond Australia’s immediate region there has been engagement in some issues relating to Southwest Asia and the Middle East, and Africa. The government’s approach to issues concerning the developing world reflects its pragmatism based on a perception of Australian interests and an identification with the countries of the developed world as led by the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Climate change presents a useful case in the study of small states because their interests can be differentiated from larger states. Small states are expected to respond to international politics, not to lead. The development of the climate regime has seen small states engage in a 'grand strategy' to achieve climate change mitigation. The apparent powerlessness of small states and the nature of the public good problem are central to understanding small states' negotiating power in the climate regime. They have capitalised on their victim status and the common interests of all states to act as regime leaders; but they have not achieved all of their objectives in terms of access to finance and technology. This suggests that while small states share the difficulties of other developing states in pursuing value-claiming goals, they may have a comparative advantage as norm-entrepreneurs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As 2004 opened Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee of India and President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan met in Islamabad. The most serious attempt to achieve a settlement of the Kashmir problem for decades was under way. Pakistan made other news. Two attempts were made on Musharraf's life and the father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb confessed that he had been responsible for the proliferation of nuclear weapons to Iran, Libya and North Korea. In the wake of Zimbabwe's withdrawal from the Commonwealth the political situation there remained deadlocked. Tuvalu told a climate change meeting that it would be the first country to go under the waves. And the first train to cross Australia north-south made its maiden journey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New Zealand's geographic isolation has led to the development of a diverse and unique environment. Yet, despite the significant human impact of settlement, first by the ancestors of the present Maori population and later by Europeans, it was not until the 1980s that New Zealand began to play a leading role in the growing international dialogue on environmental questions. Initially attention centred on opposition to the French nuclear testing programme, but soon encompassed fishing, the threat to Antarctica from mineral exploitation and climate change. The author discusses New Zealand's distinctive position in relation to the postRio 1992 Framework Convention on Climate Change, and concludes that it has lost much of the reputation it acquired in the 1980s as a leader on international environmental issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]