Pacific island nations are in “grave danger” from rising sea ranges and the world should “answer the SOS before it is too late”, the UN chief has warned throughout a go to to Tonga.
The UN secretary common, António Guterres, urged the world to “look to the Pacific and listen to the science” as he launched two new studies on the sidelines of the Pacific Islands Discussion board, the area’s most vital annual political gathering.
Sea-surface temperatures within the south-west Pacific have risen thrice quicker than the worldwide common since 1980, in accordance with a regional report compiled by the World Meteorological Group (WMO) and launched on Tuesday.
It additionally discovered that marine heatwaves within the area had roughly doubled in frequency since 1980 and turn into extra intense and longer-lasting.
The report mentioned 34 principally storm or flood-related “hydrometeorological hazard events” within the south-west Pacific final 12 months led to greater than 200 deaths and affected greater than 25 million individuals.
In a second report printed on Tuesday, the UN’s local weather motion workforce warned that the local weather disaster and sea-level rise have been “no longer distant threats”, particularly for the Pacific’s small island growing states.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Local weather Change (IPCC) concluded with excessive confidence in 2021 that the worldwide imply sea degree was rising at charges unprecedented in a minimum of the final 3,000 years because of human-induced international warming.
However the brand new UN report, titled Surging Seas in a Warming World, mentioned: “Since then, emerging research on climate ‘tipping points’ and ice sheet dynamics is raising alarm among scientists that future sea-level rise could be much larger and occur sooner than previously thought.”
Sea-level rise is attributable to melting land ice and the growth of seawater because it warms. Guterres advised reporters in Tonga on Tuesday that it had “unparalleled power to cause havoc to coastal cities and ravage coastal economies”. He mentioned Pacific islands have been “uniquely exposed” as a result of 90% of individuals lived inside 5km of the coast and about 50% of infrastructure was positioned inside 500 metres of the ocean.
If the world heated to 3C above preindustrial ranges, which is roughly what is anticipated below present insurance policies, Pacific islands “can expect at least 15cm of additional sea-level rise by mid-century, and more than 30 days per year of coastal flooding in some places”, Guterres mentioned.
“I am in Tonga to issue a global SOS – Save Our Seas – on rising sea levels,” he mentioned.
“This is a crazy situation. Rising seas are a crisis entirely of humanity’s making, a crisis that will soon swell to an almost unimaginable scale, with no lifeboat to take us back to safety. But if we save the Pacific, we also save ourselves.”
Searching for to construct momentum for motion earlier than the Cop29 local weather summit in Azerbaijan in November, Guterres referred to as on international leaders to drastically slash international emissions and pursue a “fast and fair” phase-out of fossil fuels.
He referred to as for a “massive” enhance in finance and assist for susceptible nations, arguing: “We need a surge in funds to deal with surging seas.”
The difficulty is anticipated to be one of many key objects on the agenda at Cop29 because of the imminent expiry of the earlier dedication by rich nations to mobilise US$100bn of local weather finance a 12 months.
On Tuesday, an alliance of civil-society teams referred to as on Australia to “step up and support our Pacific neighbours on the frontlines of the climate crisis”.
The teams, which embody ActionAid Australia and Oxfam Australia, urged Australia to declare its assist for a brand new US$1tn international local weather finance objective, arguing this might immediate different rich nations to step up.
“Australia and New Zealand’s climate finance contributions are falling short of need,” the organisations mentioned in a brand new report, Seizing the Second: A New Local weather Finance Aim that Delivers for the Pacific.
The report mentioned Australia had dedicated to offer $3bn within the five-year interval to 2025, however this was “well short of its estimated fair share of the US$100bn goal, which is A$4bn per year”.
Rufino Varea, the regional director of the Pacific Islands Local weather Motion Community, mentioned Pacific communities have been “enduring some of the world’s worst climate impacts despite contributing the least to the crisis”.
The manager director of ActionAid Australia, Michelle Higelin, mentioned: “We can’t tinker around the edges when it comes to climate finance. The climate crisis is already pushing Pacific countries into excruciating debt and deepening gender inequality.”
The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, is because of arrive in Tonga on Tuesday night for the annual Pacific Islands Discussion board leaders’ assembly. The regional grouping brings collectively Australia, New Zealand and 16 different Pacific nations.
