UN Chief Issues Climate ‘SOS’ For Pacific Islands Worst Hit By Ocean Warming, Sea Level Rise

Speaking on the first day of the Pacific Islands Forum in Tonga, António Guterres urged G20 nations to “step up and lead” the transition away from fossil fuels. “If we save the Pacific, we save the world,” he said.

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Pacific islands should be provided with a “greater voice on the global stage” as climate change and sea level rise driven by reckless actions from industrialized nations threaten their existence, António Guterres said on Monday.

Addressing reporters on the sidelines of the Pacific Islands Forum in Tonga, the UN Secretary-General warned of the imminent threat of sea level rise in the Pacific. Guterres highlighted the findings of two UN reports, which show that the South West Pacific is worst hit by rising sea levels, with some areas at risk of disappearing by the end of the century. According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the average annual increase was “significantly higher” in two measurement areas of the Pacific north and east of Australia compared to the global average rate rise of 3.4 millimetres a year over the past 30 years.

“I am in Tonga to issue a global SOS – Save Our Seas – on rising sea levels,” Guterres said. “Around the world, rising seas have unparallelled power to cause havoc to coastal cities and ravage coastal economies. Rising seas are a crisis entirely of humanity’s making. The world must act, and answer the SOS before it is too late.”

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the Pacific Islands Forum in Tonga, the UN Chief also praised the Pacific region as a shining example of “solidarity and strength, environmental stewardship and peace” amidst the turmoil afflicting much of the world. Conflicts, inequalities, and the escalating climate crisis are slowing down progress on the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development, said Guterres, but Pacific islands hold the key to protecting “our climate, our planet and our oceans.”

“The world has much to learn from you. It must also step up to support you.”

Pacific nations such as Fiji, Tuvalu, Marshall Islands, and Kiribati are some of the world’s most vulnerable areas to climate change. Their geographic location and low-lying atolls pose little to their resistant capacity to tropical cyclones and rising sea levels. Despite contributing only 0.02% of global emissions, these islands bear the most brunt of a warming planet, with increased coastal inundations threatening their resilience.

Their governments, some of the first to declare climate change a dire threat in the early 1990s, have repeatedly urged industrialized nations, those most responsible for climate change, to phase out fossil fuel production and include small island states at the negotiating table.

In 2021, the video of a man in a suit and tie urging world leaders to take action against climate change and put small island nations and their struggles with sea level rise on the spotlight went viral around the world. The man was Simon Kofe, Foreign Minister of Tuvalu, and he was addressing COP26 attendees standing knee-deep in the seawater of his hometown.

Tuvalu, a low-lying island nation in the Pacific, faces an existential threat from rising sea levels driven by climate change. Data collected by NASA shows that sea levels are nearly 0.15 meters (6 inches) higher compared to three decades ago and projections estimating they will rise at least 20 centimeters (8 inches) by 2050 and 0.5-1 meter (20-40 inches) by the end of the century.

More on the topic: Tuvalu’s Sinking Reality: How Climate Change Is Threatening the Small Island Nation

The sinking of Tuvalu is emblematic of the existential threat faced by the region at large – and its fate fully depends on how much the world will be able to limit global warming, said Guterres.

“The survival plan for our planet is simple: Establishing a just transition for the phaseout of the fossil fuels that are responsible for 85 per cent of the emissions of greenhouse gases. The G20 – the biggest emitters responsible for 80 per cent of those emissions – must step up and lead, by phasing out the production and consumption of fossil fuels and stopping their expansion immediately.”

In March 2023, small island states hailed a historic win as the UN General Assembly passed a historic resolution asking the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to define the obligations of individual states to fight climate change. The resolution was the culmination of a four-year campaign initiated by Pacific island law students, who demanded clarity regarding the obligations of small and big countries in terms of dealing with global warming. While not legally binding, the advisory opinion of the ICJ – the world’s top court – could help clarify legal obligations under other international agreements.

The US, the world’s second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, did not support the resolution. 

The 53rd Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting, which will last until Friday, is the top political decision-making body of the region. It brings together Australia, New Zealand, and 16 other Pacific nations to develop collective responses to regional issues and foster collaboration and partnerships.

Four of its members – Niue, Palau, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu – were part of a group of small island states which earlier this year won a historic climate change case at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), which ruled that major polluters have obligations under a global treaty to protect the marine environment.

In its advisory opinion, the ITLOS states that all 169 signatories of the 1994 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) must “take all necessary measures to prevent, reduce and control marine pollution from anthropogenic [greenhouse gas] emissions.” While not legally binding, the court’s clarification on how international law should be applied sets an important precedent for future rulings on the matter.