PEI Summit Digs Into Tough Challenges, Unique Strategies as Islands Confront Climate Change

A global conference on Prince Edward Island next week will dig into the unique issues and opportunities facing islands—from counties to full-fledged countries—as they grapple with the impacts of climate change and how to finance and improve local energy systems.

The Global Sustainable Islands Summit, which hit maximum registration more than three weeks ago, will bring 250 participants to a facility about 35 kilometres northeast of Charlottetown—which on central PEI is roughly the distance from the southern to the northern coast. James Ellsmoor, CEO of the Island Innovation Network, said that kind of geography defines a cluster of small communities that face a common set of challenges, whatever type of jurisdictional authority they can bring to bear.

“There are core issues that affect all islands globally, and energy is always in the top three,” he said in an interview leading up to the conference. “But also waste management, the dependence on the double-edged sword that is tourism, food security and agriculture, sea level rise, climate change, transportation, and the links between transportation and energy, transportation and tourism.”