On the first episode of UN Weekly, Conor Lennon and Myra Lopes focus on the effect of the climate crisis on small island developing States (SIDS), which are struggling to cope with hurricanes, flooding and wildfires. Island nations are also drowning in plastic, which is washing up on beaches, clogging rivers and, for the most part, is not recyclable and takes hundreds of years to break down.

The team are joined by Deandre Williamson from Bahamas Broadcasting, and May Yaacoub from the UN office for SIDS and least developed countries, to look at global UN-led efforts to get to grips with the problem, and how a once-in-a-decade event in Antigua can help them to fight back the plastic tide.

Full Trinidad pollution video

Polluting rivers, beaches and the ocean: How can Trinidad solve its plastics problem? | UN News

SIDS4 conference page

Studio production by Alan Adair, Jiayi Wang and Carlos Macias. Editing by Andrea Ocampo, Executive Producer is Mita Hosali. UN Weekly is a UN News production.

Email us: unweekly@un.org