Latest Euronews Ocean episode shows the climate-related challenges that Small Island Developing States are facing
![](https://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/repository/picture/2019-49/2019-12-06-euronews_52878.jpg)
date: 06/12/2019
Storm surges, intense rains and coastal erosion pose existential risks to Small Island Developing States - where a third of the population lives near sea level. The EU has close relations with the Seychelles and is helping the country to reinforce its coastline. "Here, coastal erosion means disappearance of the islands - that's the reality,” says Vincent Degert, EU Ambassador to the Republic of Mauritius and the Republic of Seychelles. “There are 90,000 people living here in the Seychelles. Their homes, their restaurants, their economic activity - everything is put at risk by climate change. So there is a genuine need to take action together."
The European Union allocated 3 million euros under the Global Climate Change Adaptation programme to help deal with the flood problems and prevent the salinification of La Digue’s agricultural fields.
"There will be projects to be implemented under the programme which the EU has committed itself to fund,” says Jean-Claude Labrosse, Principal Climate Adaptation officer, at the Seychelles Ministry of Environment, Energy and Climate Change. “One will be of course the shoreline management plan; the other one is to increase our capacity to deal with flooding within the plateau and other areas; the other one is for the beach protection; and lastly, there will also be projects to mitigate saltwater intrusion further inland. Today the world is like a global village - we cannot act in isolation. So if we are burning more fuel, if we are disposing more waste, it affects the seas, it affects the reefs, it affects the livelihood of people around the world."
Watch the episode and read the full story at: https://www.euronews.com/2019/12/06/ngos-work-to-rebuild-vital-coral-reefs-but-islands-threatened-by-climate-change-need-much