While the impacts of the Iran war have been felt by virtually every economy across the globe, islands in the Pacific have been especially exposed.

As the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) noted in an April 15 release, maritime transport is the lifeline of what they term Pacific Small Island Developing States (SIDS), which have some of the most tenuous shipping connections in the world. SIDS that surround Fiji in the Pacific Ocean can often be thousands of miles from their closest neighboring landmass, meaning that any disruptions to cargo shipments can have disastrous effects on local communities.

Pacific SIDS already receive a scarce number of container ship port calls, with some only getting between 40 and 50 shipments a year. That makes those islands extremely sensitive to disruptions to global fuel supplies, with the Polynesian nation of Tuvalu — which announced a state of emergency on April 14 — getting more than 90% of its energy from imported diesel. 

“We are at the end of the supply chain,” said Tuya Altangerel, a senior UNDP official in the Pacific region, told UN News.

Elsewhere in the Pacific, Fiji has urged its citizens not to panic buy or hoard fuel, the Marshall Islands have declared a 90-day economic emergency, and Vanuatu has warned of rising electricity prices. Many homes in SIDS are already seeing service instability as well, with Tuvalu reporting daily blackouts stemming from fuel shortages. 

And with few signs that the Strait of Hormuz will be fully open to tankers anytime soon, islands in the Pacific face a deepening crisis with no end in sight.

"What begins as a crisis in a distant shipping chokepoint can quickly become a crisis of affordability and power supply, disconnecting vulnerable island communities from the rest of the world," UN News warned.