Not Just ‘Sinking Islands’: Climate Change and Adaptation in Small Island Developing States

Small Island Developing States are among the countries which are hit the most by climate change, and especially by sea-level rise. In this article, I argue against the narrative focused on plans for collective relocation for the populations of Small Island Developing States. I argue that focusing exclusively on relocation leads us to endorse a ‘doomsday’ approach, which normalises the inevitability of territory loss, and obscures theoretically distinct and pressing problems related to how to tackle the current environmental issues and resource scarcity affecting those countries. In the first part of the article, I argue that adaptation efforts, which are systematically neglected in the dominant political theory literature about Small Island Developing States, should be prioritised over plans for relocation. In the second part of the article, I start to cast light on some of the normative dilemmas raised by a close focus on adaptation, and I defend a community-based approach to adaptation in Small Island Developing States.