SYDNEY and NUKUALOFFA, Aug 30 (IPS) – Three months ahead of the 29th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29), UN Secretary-General António Guterres has called on the international community to take urgent action as new data from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) shows the climate situation is worsening significantly.
Scientists have called for limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels to prevent overheating of the atmosphere and harmful rises in sea levels. But there is an 80% chance that the 1.5-degree limit will be breached within the next five years due to inaction to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, according to the WMO.
“This is a crazy situation. Sea level rise is a completely man-made crisis. It is going to grow to almost unimaginable proportions, with no lifeboats to take us to safety,” the UN chief declared Monday in Nuku’alofa, the capital of Tonga, a Polynesian nation of about 106,000 people southeast of Fiji.
He traveled to Pacific island nations and witnessed firsthand how people’s lives were being endangered by extreme climate change, including cyclones, floods, rising sea levels, and rising temperatures.
“Today’s report confirms that relative sea level in the southwestern Pacific has risen much more than the global average, in some places more than twice the global rate of sea level rise over the past three decades.” Guterres said. “If we are to save the Pacific, we must also save ourselves. The world must act and answer the SOS before it is too late.”
According to a recently published UN report, “Rising Oceans in a Warming World,” the global average sea level rise from 1993 to 2023 was 9.4 centimeters, but in the southwestern Pacific it rose by more than 15 centimeters.
The melting of Arctic and Antarctic ice sheets and the expanding oceans are predicted to “significantly increase the frequency and severity of episodic flooding in nearly all parts of the Pacific Small Island Developing States in the coming decades.” Ninety percent of Pacific Islanders live within 5km of a coastline, making them highly exposed to eroding seas.
The report argues that the impacts of climate change pose a serious threat to human life, livelihoods and food security, with the impacts of increasing poverty, loss and damage being “profound and far-reaching”.
For years, Pacific Island leaders have been at the forefront of urging world leaders and developed countries to take strict action to curb the rising carbon dioxide emissions that are destroying the Earth’s atmosphere.
In Tonga, the Secretary-General attended the 53rd meeting.road name The Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Summit, to be held on 26-27 August, will be attended by Tonga’s Prime Minister and host, Hon. Siaosi Sovaleni, Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister James Marape, Samoa’s Leader Fiame Naomi Mata’afa and Tuvalu’s Prime Minister Feleti Teo.
And he seized the opportunity to amplify their voices and climate leadership. “Greenhouse gases are causing ocean heating, acidification and rising sea levels. But Pacific Islands are showing the way to protect our climate, our planet and our oceans,” he said.
The UN Secretary-General took the time to listen to the voices of local communities and youth, gaining valuable insights into how Tongans are responding to climate extremes and disasters.
In January 2022, a tsunami generated by the eruption of an undersea volcano known as Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai struck Tonga. It reached the main island of Tongatapu and other islands, affecting 80% of the country’s population, destroying livestock and farmland, and causing more than $125 million in damage.
Guterres met with residents of the coastal villages of Kanokupolu and Ha’atafu, which were devastated by the tsunami, inspected devastated beach resorts and coastal infrastructure, and witnessed first-hand the resilience and determination of people rebuilding their homes and lives.
Two years ago, the UN also launched the Early Warning for All project, which aims to save lives and prevent harm by installing early warning systems in every country by 2027.
“As tropical cyclones and floods increase in intensity, simple weather forecasts are no longer enough to prepare people for these natural disasters,” Arti Pratap, a tropical cyclone expert and lecturer in geospatial science at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji, told IPS. “It is important to focus on building the capacity of communities to use the information that national meteorological services in the Pacific provide on an hourly, daily and monthly basis to make decisions,” she said.
For example, many farmers tend to rely on “readily available traditional knowledge about weather and climate and their interactions with their surroundings. They are familiar with this. But traditional knowledge may not be sufficient in the context of global warming,” Pratap said.
The UN initiative involves installing weather stations, ocean sensors and radars to better predict extreme weather and disaster situations. According to the UN, providing 24-hour notice of an impending disaster could reduce damage by 30%. As part of the project, Guterres launched a new weather radar at Tonga International Airport.
The week-long tour of Pacific islands, including Samoa, New Zealand and Timor-Leste, provided an excellent opportunity for Secretary-General Guterres to kick-start talks on the goals that will be discussed at COP29, which takes place in Baku, Azerbaijan, from 11 to 22 November.
A key priority for this year’s climate summit is to reach a broad agreement on limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius and on the scale and delivery of climate finance. “One thing that I am very clear about while I am here is that we can say loud and clear that from Pacific Islands to the largest emitters, continuing to increase emissions due to the devastating impacts of climate change is completely unacceptable,” Guterres declared in Nuku’alofa on 26 August 2024.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSPETGYf36s
And for many Pacific Islanders, better access to climate finance is essential. The Pacific Community, a development organization, reports that the region needs at least $2 billion a year to implement climate resilience and adaptation projects and transition to renewable energy. That’s far more than the roughly $220 million the Pacific currently receives in climate finance.
“Despite laudable commitments from the United Nations and world leaders, such as the Paris Agreement, existing global financial mechanisms still prevent community-based and youth organizations from accessing critical support,” Mahoney Mori, chair of the Pacific Youth Commission, told local media following a meeting between the UN Secretary-General and Pacific youth leaders in the Tongan capital.
“As a first step, all developed countries must commit to doubling adaptation finance to at least $40 billion a year by 2025,” the UN Secretary-General said on World Environment Day, June 24.
The Tongan prime minister summed up the sentiments of many in the Pacific as the world’s attention turned to his island nation as the UN secretary-general visited. “Actions speak louder than words,” he told the Pacific leaders’ meeting. Referring to a minor earthquake that rocked the island as leaders gathered in Tonga, he added: “We put on a show with the rain and a little flooding, and the earthquake shook you a little bit and made you realize the reality of what we have to face in the Pacific.”
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© Inter Press Service (2024) — All rights reservedOriginal Source: Inter Press Service
