UN Secretary-General Warns of ‘Cruel’ Impacts of Climate Change on Pacific Islands – Global Issues
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 27 (IPS) – UN Secretary General António Guterres warned of the widespread impact of climate change when he visited the Pacific islands of Samoa and Tonga.
“(Climate change) means disaster: wide-ranging and brutal impacts, coming stronger and faster than we can adapt to – destroying entire coastal communities,” Guterres said, speaking at a meeting of Pacific Island leaders in Tonga..
Rising sea levels and warming ocean temperatures are a threat to the stability of Pacific Island nations and their social and economic well-being. Two new reports from the United Nations and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) shed light on the rapid rate of sea level rise and warn of its impact on coastal areas around the world.
A report from the WMO, Southwest Pacific Climate Change Scenario 2023shows that sea levels in that region are higher than the global average. Among other things, sea level rise is among the effects of global warming and climate change that make up the fabric of oceans and seas. A new report by the UN Climate Action Team, Rising Seas in a warm countryprovides a breakdown of sea level rise by scientific reporting and examines the implications on a broader scale.
While in Tonga for the 53rd Pacific Islands Forum Leaders’ Meeting, Guterres warned that rising sea levels would have an “incomparable force” to wreak havoc on coastal cities and their economies.
“The reason is clear: greenhouse gases – produced in excess due to the burning of fossil fuels – are cooking our planet,” said Guterres. “And the ocean takes heat—literally.”
Sea level rise poses a global threat to low-lying islands and coastal communities connected to the sea. In this area, about 11 percent of the world’s people (900 million) live on continents or islands connected to the sea, which also have a lot of global economic activity and cultural heritage sites. Major coastal cities on all continents, such as Bangkok, Dhaka, Buenos Aires, London, Tokyo, and New York City, are facing threats to their safety and sustainability. Sea level rise destroys land, destroys infrastructure, and disrupts lives and livelihoods.
Sea level rise, however, has a disproportionately negative impact on small island developing states (SIDs), especially those in the Pacific. Many islands in the Pacific face a sea level change of 15 cm between 1993 and 2023, which is much higher than the global sea level rise of 9.4 cm. Based on a projection of 3 degrees Celsius in global temperatures, sea level rise in the Pacific will increase by an additional 15 cm between 2020 and 2050. Yet the Pacific Islands account for only 0.02 percent of global emissions. A special UN brief notes that at least 90 percent of the Pacific Island population, or 700 million people, live within five kilometers of the coast.
The average rate of sea level rise has more than doubled since the 1990s. Between 1993 and 2002, the rate was 0.21%. The rate from 2014 to 2022 is estimated at 0.48 percent. This rising rate is due to the warming of the oceans and the loss of ice in Greenland and the Antarctic.
Along with rising sea levels, ocean warming is a major concern in the Pacific. Between 1981 and 2023, almost the entire South-West Pacific region reached temperatures of 0.4 degrees Celsius, almost three times faster than the rate of ocean warming of 0.15 percent over the same period. The WMO also identified that ocean heat waves—periods of unusually high ocean temperatures—have increased in intensity and duration over much of the Pacific over the past decade. There will be serious consequences for fish stocks and the resilience of coral reefs, which will have an impact on the environment, the economy and the health of the Pacific.
“The ocean has absorbed more than 90 percent of the excess heat trapped by greenhouse gases and there are irreversible changes in the coming centuries. Human activities are weakening the ocean’s ability to support and protect us—despite sea level rise—turning a lifelong friend into a growing threat,” the Secretary said. -WMO General Celeste Saulo.
“In some countries, the loss of land due to climate change and rising sea levels may cause them to become uninhabitable. This raises the consequences of displacement, sovereignty and empire. Pacific island nations are already facing loss of life and land erosion due to sea level rise and are at greater risk of hurricanes of the tropics and the increase in the frequency of coastal flooding. Adapting to the effects of sea level rise requires working on a larger scale than before with protection measures in the Pacific, economic damage and losses due to coastal flooding can reach millions of lost dollars, “said Guterres.
In his statement, Guterres urged countries to strengthen their climate commitments by introducing new Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) by 2025. resistance to the effects of the weather. Guterres called on governments to increase financing and support vulnerable countries, appointing developed countries to honor their financial commitments, such as doubling adaptation funds to USD 40 billion by 2025. He also called on countries to support new financial goals during this year’s UN Climate Summit. (COP29).
By 2027, everyone on earth must be protected with effective warning systems, Guterres said. This can be done by investing in and building capacity for climate data and information resources, which can help inform early warning systems and long-term adaptation solutions.
“The world must look to the Pacific and listen to science,” Guterres said. “This is the opposite situation: The rising seas are an absolute human disaster. A disaster that will quickly grow to an unimaginable scale, with no lifeboat to bring us back to safety. But if we save the Pacific, we also save ourselves. .”
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© Inter Press Service (2024) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service
