Kingstown, St. Vincent and the Grenadines – 8 August: A major meeting of the 16 Small Island Developing States (SIDS) of the Caribbean begins in Kingstown, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, today, to assess development progress and agree on priorities for next year’s United Nations conference on SIDS in Antigua and Barbuda. The Caribbean SIDS—Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago—are battling unique challenges, including rising sea levels, extreme weather events and changing weather patterns that are threatening ecosystems and damaging economies. “Our region is complex but we share a special bond, due to our small size and geographic positioning and our unique vulnerabilities; the effects of a changing climate and intense natural disasters, the impacts of various exogenous economic shocks and casc...