When autonomy meets climate stress: Centralized finance and climate adaptation in a semi-autonomous island

Excerpt from “When autonomy meets climate stress: Centralized finance and climate adaptation in a semi-autonomous island” by Marie Stéphania Perrine, published on LinkedIn Pulse (24 February 2026).

Introduction

Across small island contexts, decentralization is frequently framed as a pathway to locally tailored development and improved governance responsiveness (Narotoma, 2022). Yet in climate-exposed island jurisdictions, the practical implications of autonomy depend less on formal legislative authority than on fiscal architecture (OECD, 2023). Semi-autonomous island regions often exercise administrative and policy control over key development sectors while remaining embedded within nationally centralized macro-fiscal systems (Baldacchino, 2006). This institutional configuration has significant consequences for climate-resilient development.

This article examines how fiscal arrangements shape resilience capacity in semi-autonomous island jurisdictions, drawing specifically on the case of Rodrigues (Mauritius). It argues that climate vulnerability interacts decisively with centralized fiscal design (SNG-WOF, 2022): where decentralization transfers responsibility without transferring scalable financial instruments, vulnerability may be compounded rather than reduced (Tye and Suarez, 2021; Alcántara-Ayala et al., 2025).