UN Secretary-General António Guterres issued a “global SOS” on rising sea levels in the Pacific on Tuesday at the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) summit, unveiling research showing that the sea level is rising faster than the global average.
“I am in Tonga to issue a global SOS – Save our Seas – on rising sea levels. A global catastrophe is putting this Pacific paradise at risk,” Mr. Guterres said.
The Pacific Islands, with their small populations and little heavy industry, collectively emit less than 0.02% of annual global greenhouse gas emissions.
But this vast group of volcanic islands and low-lying coral atolls is being hit hard by the effects of global warming, particularly through rising water levels.
According to a new report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) presented at the forum, sea levels have risen by an average of 9.4 cm globally over the past 30 years.
An increase of up to 15 cm in certain areas of the Pacific.
“It is increasingly clear that we are rapidly running out of time to stop this trend,” warns Celeste Saulo, secretary general of this leading UN agency.
“People, economies and ecosystems across the South West Pacific region are being heavily impacted by the cascading effects” of climate change, she says in the report’s foreword.
“A question of survival”
In some places, including Kiribati and the Cook Islands, sea level rise measurements are at or below the global average.
But elsewhere, particularly in Samoa and Fiji, the observed rise is three times greater.
In Tuvalu, the land area is already so small that children are using the tarmac at the international airport as their playground.
Even with a limited rise in sea levels in the future, experts say Tuvalu could be completely submerged within 30 years.
“Disasters keep happening and we are losing the ability to rebuild, to withstand another cyclone or another flood,” Tuvalu’s Climate Minister Maina Talia told AFP on Monday on the sidelines of the PIF summit.
“For low-lying island states, it is a matter of survival,” he added.
The plight of the Pacific countries may have been overlooked in the past, particularly because of their isolation and lesser economic weight.
But the region is seen by researchers as a harbinger of what might happen in other parts of the world.
“This new report confirms what Pacific leaders have been saying for years,” Australian climate researcher Wes Morgan told AFP.
“Climate change is their greatest security threat. Pacific nations are in a fight for survival, and stopping climate pollution is essential to their future,” he said.
Polluter pays
The vast majority of people in South Pacific countries live within five kilometres of the coast, according to the United Nations.
By causing land submersion, rising sea levels not only reduce living space, but also water and food resources for populations, the organization points out.
Higher water temperatures also lead to more violent natural disasters, while ocean acidification affects the marine food chain.
For expert Rosanne Martyr, from the Climate Analytics institute based in Berlin, “the price to pay will inexorably increase if nothing is done urgently.”
Already, countries such as Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and Micronesia have lost “more than 1% of their GDP due to rising waters,” she says.
Pacific island nations are logically “on the front line of the battle against climate change,” recalled PIF Secretary General Baron Waqa of Nauru on Monday at the opening of the forum.
Tuvalu’s Climate Minister Maina Talia has urged “the most polluting countries” to bear the growing costs of climate change financially, under the “polluter pays” principle.
The FIP forum, which brings together 18 associated states and territories, including New Caledonia and French Polynesia, is due to be held until Thursday.