Infrastructure for Resilient Island State
The Infrastructure for Resilient Island State (IRIS) is an initiative to boost the infrastructure in small island countries. It was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the COP26 meeting held in Glasgow in November 2021.
About IRIS
The IRIS is a part of the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI). The CDRI is an initiative announced by India at the United Nations General Assembly in 2019. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic very few works of CDRI happened between 2019 and 2021. The IRIS is to change this situation and give an initial momentum. The CDRI was launched to promote resilience of critical infrastructure. As of November 2021, 25 countries have joined CDRI. They are Italy, Germany, Australia, Japan, USA, Italy, etc.
Need for IRIS
The small island countries are the most vulnerable regions to climate change on the earth. This is because they face the worst impacts of climate change. Every infrastructure of the small island countries is extremely critical to them. A big country with wide land area like India, USA or African countries, can have ten aiports. Thus, if one or two airports of these big countries are damaged in natural disasters, they manage by diverting the operations to the other airports. On the other hand, the small island countries have only one small airstrip. If this gets damaged, the country loses its connectivity with the rest of the world. Therefore, it is important to build infrastructure that are protected against the vagaries of nature. Such infrastructure should be climate proofed. The work of CDRI starts with the small island countries to achieve this.
Significance of IRIS
The small islands are vulnerable to the rising sea levels. Also, the storms threaten their infrastructure and settlements. The United Nations Office for Project Services report says that around 20% of global biodiversity are in small island countries and they are facing severe climate change impacts. On the other hand, they are responsible for less than 1% of global green house gas emissions. Sustainable and resilient infrastructure is the only solution to the problem to the sinking island countries. Therefore, there is need to focus on their overall infrastructure across all sectors such as transport, energy, digital communication, water, waste water, solid waste and buildings. The IRIS is to focus on all this.
