The United Nations Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres has said that big polluters have a clear responsibility to cut emissions \u2013 or risk a worldwide catastrophe.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Pacific is today the most vulnerable area of the world,\u201d he told the BBC at the Pacific Island Forum Leaders Meeting in Tonga. \u201cThere is an enormous injustice in relation to the Pacific and it\u2019s the reason I am here.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe small islands don\u2019t contribute to climate change but everything that happens because of climate change is multiplied here.\u201d<\/p>\n
But eventually the \u201csurging seas are coming for us all,\u201d he warned in a speech at the forum, as the UN releases two separate reports on rising sea levels and how they threaten Pacific island nations.<\/p>\n
The World Meteorological Organization\u2019s State of the Climate in the South West Pacific\u00a0report says this region faces a triple whammy of an accelerating rise in the sea level, a warming of the ocean and acidification \u2013 a rise in the sea\u2019s acidity because it\u2019s absorbing more and more carbon dioxide.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reason is clear: greenhouse gases \u2013 overwhelmingly generated by burning fossil fuels \u2013 are cooking our planet,\u201d Mr Guterres said in a speech at the forum.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe sea is taking the heat \u2013 literally.\u201d<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s theme \u2013 transformative resilience \u2013 was tested on the opening day when the new auditorium was deluged by heavy rains and buildings evacuated because of an earthquake.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s such a stark reminder of how volatile things are within our region, and how important it is that we need to prepare for everything,\u201d Joseph Sikulu, Pacific director at 350, a climate change advocacy group, told the BBC.<\/p>\n
Not far from the venue was a street parade, with dancers representing the region, including Torres Strait islanders, Tongans and Samoans. At the start of the parade, a big banner reads, \u201cWe are not drowning, we are fighting\u201d. Another says: \u201cSea levels are rising \u2013 so are we\u201d.<\/p>\n
It echoes a challenge that threatens to wipe out their world \u2013 the UN Climate Action Team released a report called \u201cSurging Seas in a Warming World showing that global average sea levels are rising at rates unprecedented in the past 3,000 years.<\/p>\n
According to the report, the levels have risen an average of 9.4cm (3.7in) in the past 30 years but in the tropical Pacific, that figure was as high as 15cm.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s important for leaders, especially like Australia and Aotearoa, to come and witness these things for themselves, but also witness the resilience of our people,\u201d Mr Sikulu said.<\/p>\n
\u201cA core part of Tongan culture is our ability to be able to continue to be joyful throughout our adversity, and that\u2019s how we practice our resilience and to see and witness that, I think is going to be important.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is the second time Secretary-General Guterres has participated in the Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting. The annual meeting brings together leaders from 18 Pacific Islands, including Australia and New Zealand.<\/p>\n
As leaders convened for the official opening ceremony, heavy rain caused extensive flooding. Shortly afterwards, a magnitude 6.9 earthquake hit the Tonga region, highlighting just how vulnerable it is.<\/p>\n
In 2019, Mr Guterres travelled to Tuvalu where he sounded the alarm about rising sea levels. Five years on, he says he has seen real changes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe see everywhere an enormous commitment to resist, a commitment to reduce the negative impact of climate change,\u201d he told the BBC. \u201cThe problem is, the Pacific Islands also suffer another big injustice \u2013 the international financial instruments that exist to support countries in distress were not designed for countries like this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Guterres on Monday visited local communities whose livelihoods are threatened by rising sea levels. They\u2019ve been waiting for seven years for a decision to be made on the funding of a sea wall.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe bureaucracy, the complexity, the lack of sense of urgency because it\u2019s a small island, far away,\u201d he said, citing the failings of the international financial system, especially when it comes to small, developing island states.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are promises of increases of money available for adaptation in developing countries but the truth is we are far from what is needed, from the solidarity that is needed for these countries to be able to exist.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many Pacific islanders here at the conference single out the biggest regional donor and emitter \u2013 Australia.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Australia would be ramping up its extraction and use of gas until \u201c2050 and beyond,\u201d despite calls to phase out fossil fuels.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is an essential responsibility of the big polluters,\u201d Mr Guterres said, when asked by the BBC what message he has for regional emitters like Australia.<\/p>\n
Without that, the world will breech the threshold of 1.5C that was established in the Paris Agreement in 2015. That agreement aims to limit global warming to \u201cwell below\u201d 2C by the end of the century, and \u201cpursue efforts\u201d to keep warming within the safer limit of 1.5C.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnly by limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius do we have a fighting chance of preventing the irreversible collapse of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets \u2013 and the catastrophes that accompany them,\u201d Mr Guterres said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat means cutting global emissions 43% compared to 2019 levels by 2030, and 60% by 2035.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last year though, global emissions rose 1%.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is an obligation of the G20 that represent 80% of emissions \u2013 there\u2019s an obligation for them to come together, to guarantee a reduction of emissions now,\u201d Mr Guterres said.<\/p>\n
Singling out the G20 as well as companies who contribute to much of the world\u2019s global emissions, he added: \u201cThey have a clear responsibility to reverse the current trend. It\u2019s time to say \u2018enough\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The post Surging seas are coming for us all, warns UN chief<\/a> first appeared on KBC<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The United Nations Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres has said that big polluters have a clear responsibility to cut emissions \u2013 or risk a worldwide catastrophe. \u201cThe Pacific is today the most vulnerable area of the world,\u201d he told the BBC at the Pacific Island Forum Leaders Meeting in Tonga. \u201cThere is an enormous injustice in relation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83590\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}