CLIMATE change will remake the Pacific, even though it is not of the Pacific’s making.
Tuvalu Prime Minister Feleti Teo said this was the irony of a phenomenon declared by the region’s leaders to be the greatest existential threat to the lives and future prosperity of the people of the Pacific region.
“Climate change manifests itself in many ways including more severe and frequent cyclones, extended droughts, sea level rise, ocean acidification, coral reef bleaching and changes in the migration and distribution patterns of the highly valuable tuna stocks,’ Teo said in Canberra this week.
“Sea-level rise poses an existential threat to our economies, to our culture and heritage and to the very land that has nourished our ancestors for centuries.’’
Current forecasts for predict that more than 50 per cent of Tuvalu will be regularly flooded by tidal surges by 2050 if the current rate of sea level rise is not halted and reversed.
“In another 50 years afterwards in 2100, more than 90 per cent of Tuvalu’s land territory would suffer the same fate,’’ Teo said.
“Those are frightening and dooming forecasts, and I hope like hell they are wrong, but the evidence is clear as daylight.’’
Teo said Tuvalu would spare no efforts to future-proof the integrity and habitability of its land territory to ensure it survived as a nation and its people continued to enjoy their way of life.
Under the Tuvalu Coastal Adaptation Programme (TCAP), the country has used Green Climate Fund and the Australian funding to initiate protection and reclamation of the coastline.
“In the first phase we have managed to reclaim around seven and a half hectares of land at a higher elevation than most parts of the capital,’’ he said.
“Last year we launched the second phase, with the support of the Australian and New Zealand government. This will extend the land reclamation efforts in Funafuti with an additional eight hectares of safe and flood-free land.’’
TCAP projects on the outer islands include construction of Berm Top Barriers, Reef Top Barriers and Sebe revetments, which provide barriers against storm surges. These specially built walls aim to protect critical infrastructure including schools, medical clinics and crops.
A free digital platform allows communities to track shoreline climate changes and design.
“We are convinced that if we can build enough protection measures Tuvalu will survive as a nation,’’ Teo said.
“We know it can be done, and we stand ready to ensure that all our people have a future on Tuvalu.’’
What is believed to be a narco-submarine or narco-sub was discovered near Ramos Island, between Malaita and Isabel provinces.