SYDNEY & NUKU’ALOFA, Aug 30 (IPS) – Three months before the United Nations (UN) Climate Change Conference of COP29, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, has requested an urgent response from the international community as new data . from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) shows a severe deterioration of the climate.
Scientists have called for limiting global temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels to prevent global warming and a catastrophic rise in sea levels. But, due to inaction in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, there is an 80 percent chance that the 1.5 degree limit will be breached within the next five years, the WMO reports.
“This is the opposite situation: rising seas are a problem facing humanity as a whole. A disaster that will quickly reach an unimaginable scale without a lifeboat to take us back to safety,” said the UN Secretary-General in Nuku’alofa. the capital of Tonga, a Polynesian country of about 106,000 people southeast of Fiji, on Monday.
He has been on the ground in the Pacific Islands, seeing firsthand how people’s lives are hanging on as they suffer from the effects of extreme weather, such as hurricanes, floods, rising seas and rising temperatures.
“Today’s reports confirm that sea levels in the southwest Pacific have risen even higher than the global average, in some places twice the global increase over the past 30 years,” Guterres said. “If we save the Pacific, we also save ourselves. The world must act and respond to the SOS before it is too late.”
According to a recently released UN report, Sea Level Rise in the Tropical Oceans, the global sea level increase was 9.4 cm, but in the southwest Pacific it was more than 15 cm between 1993 and 2023.
Rising seas, due to the melting of the Arctic and Antarctic ice sheets, are expected to “cause a significant increase in the frequency and intensity of episodic flooding in almost all areas of the Pacific Small Island Developing States in the coming decades.” 90 percent of Pacific Islanders live within 5 kilometers of the coast, making them highly exposed to sea intrusion.
The impacts of climate change pose serious risks to human health, livelihoods and food security, and the impacts of increased poverty and loss and damage are “deep and far-reaching,” the report said.
For years, Pacific Island leaders have been at the forefront of calling on world leaders and industrialized countries to take drastic measures to curb the increasing carbon emissions that are destroying the world’s atmosphere.
In Tonga, the Secretary-General joined many of them at 53rd Pacific Islands Forum Leaders’ summit on the 26-27 August, including the summit and Prime Minister of Tonga, Hon. Siaosi Sovaleni, the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, James Marape, the leader of Samoa, Fiame Naomi Mata’afa and the Prime Minister of Tuvalu, Feleti Teo.
And he took the opportunity to amplify their voices and their climate leadership. ‘Greenhouse gases cause ocean warming, acidification and rising seas. But the Pacific Islands show how to protect our climate, our planet and our oceans,’ she said.
The UN chief took the time to listen to the voices of local communities and youth, gaining valuable insight into how Tongans respond to extreme weather and disasters.
In January 2022, a tsunami, caused by the eruption of an undersea volcano known as Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai, hit Tonga. It reached the main island of Tongatapu and others, affected 80 percent of the country’s population, destroyed livestock and farmland and caused more than USD 125 million in damage.
Guterres met with the people of the coastal villages of Kanokupolu and Ha’atafu, which were destroyed when the tsunami passed and inspected the ruins of coastal resorts and coastal infrastructure while witnessing the resilience and determination of those who rebuilt their homes and lives.
Two years ago, the UN also launched ‘Early Warnings for All’, a project that aims to install early warning systems in all countries by 2027 to save lives and prevent damage.
“With the increase in tropical cyclones and floods, simple weather forecasting is not enough for people to prepare for these natural disasters,” said Arti Pratap, a tropical cyclone expert who teaches Geospatial Science at the University of the South Pacific. Fiji, he told IPS. He said it is important to “focus on building the capacity of communities to use the information provided by national weather services in the Pacific hourly, daily and monthly to make decisions.”
Many farmers, for example, “tend to rely on readily available traditional knowledge about weather and climate and its interactions with the environment, which they are familiar with. However, traditional knowledge may not be enough after global warming,” Pratap said.
The UN program includes setting up weather observation stations, ocean sensors and radars to better predict extreme weather and disasters. According to the UN, giving 24 hours notice of an impending disaster can reduce the damage by 30 percent. As part of the project, Guterres launched a new weather radar at Tonga’s International Airport.
His week-long tour of the Pacific islands, which included time in Samoa, New Zealand and East Timor, was a good opportunity for Guterres to open discussions on the goals that will be on the table at COP29, which will be held in Baku, Azerbaijan, on November 11-22.
Key priorities at this year’s climate conference will, among other things, be limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius and achieving a broad agreement on the level and provision of climate finance. ‘One thing that is very clear in front of me here is to be able to say loud and clear from the Pacific islands to the emitters that it is absolutely unacceptable, with the negative impact of climate change, to continue the rise of gas,’ Guterres. announced in Nuku’alofa on August 26, 2024.
And, for many Pacific Islanders, getting better access to climate finance is important. The development organization, Pacific Community, reports that the region will need at least USD 2 billion annually to implement climate resilience and adaptation projects and to transition to renewable energy. This far exceeds what the Pacific currently receives in climate finance, which is USD 220 million per year.
“Despite the commendable pledges of the United Nations and world leaders, such as the Paris Agreement, the existing mechanisms of global finance still prevent community-based organizations and youth from receiving significant support,” Mahoney Mori, Chairman of the Pacific Youth Council, told this site. media during the meeting between the UN Head and Pacific youth leaders in the capital of Tonga.
‘As a first step, all developed countries should honor their commitment to deal with a doubling of at least USD 40 billion annually by 2025,’ said the UN Secretary General on World Environment Day on June 24.
Tonga’s prime minister summed up the views of many in the Pacific as the world’s attention focused on his island nation with the visit of the UN Secretary-General: “We need more action than words,” he told a meeting of Pacific leaders. Referring to the small earthquake that shook the islands when the leaders gathered in Tonga, he added, “We played a show about rain and floods and we shook you a little with that earthquake, just to wake you up.” in the reality of what we have to deal with here in the Pacific.”
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© Inter Press Service (2024) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service
