Climate Change is No ‘Future Scenario’ for Pacific Island Nations; Climate Change is ‘Real’ — Global Issues
SHARM EL SHEIK, Nov. 15 (IPS) – Pacific island nations are highly vulnerable to climate change, and some have already disappeared – and many more could go under water due to water levels rise high.
Based on UN figures, extreme weather conditions caused by climate change have resulted in the displacement of about 50,000 people each year. Urgent support is needed to help them adapt and reduce its impact.
COP27 opened with a strong appeal from Tuvalu Prime Minister Kausea Natano, who called for a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty at COP27. Addressing world leaders, he said: “Tuvalu joined Vanuatu and other countries in calling for a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty to guide our development model in pursuit of energy. renewable and equitable transition away from fossil fuels.”
A failed battle against climate damage
In 2015, Vanuatu Island was hit by a Category 5 hurricane that killed residents, displaced thousands and damaged infrastructure. It is not final. Another severe storm hit the island in 2020 after hitting the neighboring Solomon Islands.
Vanuatu is one of the 20 countries that make up the Pacific Islands. They have a population of more than 2 million people whose livelihood is linked to the sea. Island nations face an underwater future if they cannot cope with the effects of climate change and repair the damage it has already caused.
“In Vanuatu, adaptation is at the core of making sure we build resilience; otherwise, we will continue to see Vanuatu devastated by tornadoes and sink into the sea,” said Nelson Kalo, Senior Mitigation Officer at the Department of Climate Change in Vanuatu, on the sidelines of COP27.
Kalo said natural disasters caused by climate change are affecting the region.
“We need the resources to build adaptive capacity so that in the future we will be resilient to climate change,” he said.
Sea level rise, rising temperatures, frequency and intensity of tropical cyclones and storm surge are some of the climate change impacts facing island nations, some of which are located in low-lying areas. only 5 meters above sea level at the highest point.
Dirk Snyman, Program Coordinator, said: “In the Pacific Islands, people depend on key industries, especially agriculture and fishing, for their livelihoods and we are seeing this. Many of the impacts of climate change across the region are impacting livelihoods.” Climate Finance Unit at Pacific Community (SPC). SPC is an international scientific and technical organization in the region that supports the rights and well-being of Pacific Islanders through science and knowledge.
Ocean acidification and warming is affecting fisheries and causing the bleaching of coral reefs, which provide habitat for fish and the main source of food for islanders.
“In the Pacific islands, climate change is not a scenario predicted in the future based on projected models; it’s a daily reality,” Snyman told IPS. “It is becoming more and more difficult, especially with crops and drinking water, for people to meet their daily needs who now have to rely on imported food and drinking water, which is expensive. high fees.”
Snyman said the island nations have suffered economic and non-economic losses, such as cultural losses, and the loss of facilities and damage is a timely intervention for them. . The issue of loss and damage funds has been on the agenda of the COP27 negotiations, which will be heated this week in Egypt.
Mitigation
The Pacific island nations have very low emissions and emit less than 1% of global emissions by region. But despite these low emissions, countries have developed ambitious Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement to be fully renewable by 2030.
“Compare that to any NDC worldwide… (However) Pacific island nations are struggling to cash in on the transition to renewable energy because there’s always been an argument that they’re too small. or reduce emissions so little that they don’t get the money to fund their NDC,” Snyman said.
The climate financing needs for the Pacific Islands are estimated at 6.5 to 9% of GDP per year, which is about US$1 billion per year.
Snyman said the current estimate of approved financing is about $220 million annually, just 20% of the $1 billion needed. He said multilateral mechanisms take up to five years to get financing, when countries will suffer the worst effects of climate change.
“Pacific nations feel very clearly that loss and damage should be compensated with money to make up for the economic and non-economic losses that are inevitable and they cannot adapt,” Snyman said. and that will continue to affect communities for decades.
Espen Ronneberg, Senior Adviser, Multilateral Agreement on Climate Change at SPC, said loss and damage would be expected without ambitious mitigation actions and greenhouse gas emissions reductions.
“We’ve experienced some of this to a certain extent where the impacts are being felt right now, but we’re also looking to the future and those impacts are going to get much worse. unless mitigation is enhanced and unless technical assistance is provided, financial Ronneberg explains that available resources are not suitable for the purpose of addressing the current impacts of climate change in the Pacific island nations Positive.
Ronneberg said the Pacific island nations have mitigation ambitions because they have some of the highest energy costs in the world due to the cost of importing fuel and natural gas. They have been looking at energy efficiency through solar technology and are exploring wind and wave power.
“We have to consider the slow onset of effects such as sea level rise and changes in precipitation. There may be opportunities to adapt, but there is a point where you can’t adapt anymore – where an island becomes uninhabitable because of the conditions,” he said.
Anne-Claire Goarant, Director of the Division of Environmental Sustainability and Climate Change at SPC, said adaptation is crucial for NDC implementation in the Pacific islands but needs to focus on strong mitigation programmes. strong.
“We needed the flexibility to describe the adaptation targets to reflect the reality on the ground, and at this stage we needed transformative action,” Goarant told IPS. “We have to accelerate the scale and the money available to take action that will yield some results in the short and long term, such as large-scale tree planting along the coast.”
“It’s not just a small dot of adaptation; we really need a global goal that can be accomplished at the local level by local communities because the work will be done locally by people who need to understand what climate change is and why. It is important to adapt and how they can be supported.”
Report of the UN IPS Office
Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
Follow IPS News UN Office on Instagram
© Inter Press Service (2022) — All rights reservedOrigin: Inter Press Service
