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Climate Change is No ‘Future Scenario’ for Pacific Island Nations; Climate Change is ‘Real’ — Global Issues


This photo was taken a month after Hurricane Pam hit Tuvalu. It shows that the main square of Nui Island is still underwater. The tropical storm has entered Vanuatu, affecting nearly half of the island’s inhabitants. Credit: Silke von Brockhausen / UNDP
  • by Busani Bafana (sharm el sheik)
  • Associated Press Service

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 the passionate plea of ​​the Prime Minister of Tuvalu, Karors Natano, who called for a treaty on the non-proliferation of fossil weapons at COP27. Addressing world leaders, he said: “Tuvalu joined Vanuatu and other countries in calling for the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty to guide our development model in pursuit of renewable energy. and a step forward from fossil fuels”.

The battle against the harmful effects of climate

In 2015, the island of Vanuatu was affected by a Category 5 tornado that killed people, displaced thousands and damaged infrastructure. It is not the last. Another severe cyclone 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, their livelihoods are tied 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 ensuring we build resilience; otherwise, we will continue to see Vanuatu destroyed by cyclones and sink to the seabed,” said Nelson Kalo, Climate Change Department Senior Mitigation Officer in Vanuatu, on the sidelines of COP27.

Kalo said natural disasters caused by climate change are impacting the region.

“We need the resources to build our adaptive capacity so that in the future we can combat climate change,” he said.

Sea level rise, increasing temperatures, frequency and intensity of tropical cyclones and storm surge are some of the climate change impacts facing island nations, some in regions of the world. low-lying area only 5 meters above sea level at the highest point.

Dirk Snyman, Coordinator of the 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 are affecting fisheries and causing bleaching of coral reefs, which provide habitat for fish, 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 for crops and drinking water, for people to meet their daily needs which now depend on high cost imported food and water. “.

Snyman said the island nations had already suffered economic and non-economic damages, such as cultural damage, and that a lost and damaged facility was a timely intervention for them. The issue of loss and damage funds was on the agenda of the COP27 negotiations, which intensified this week in Egypt.

Mitigation

The Pacific island nations have very low emissions and emit less than 1% of global emissions as a region. But despite these low emissions, countries have developed ambitious Nationally Defined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement to be fully energy renewable by 2030.

“Compare that to any NDC around the world… (However) Pacific island nations are struggling to get the money to convert to renewables because the argument has always been that they are too small or they have a low level of power. emissions reductions are too little, so they don’t get money to fund their NDCs,” said Snyman.

The need for climate financing for the Pacific islands is estimated at 6.5 to 9% of GDP per year, or 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, at which point countries will have to experience the worst effects of climate change.

“Pacific nations feel very strongly that there is a need to monetize losses and damages to make up for the economic and non-economic losses they cannot adapt to,” Snyman said. will continue to influence the community for decades.

Espen Ronneberg, Senior Advisor, Multilateral Agreement on Climate Change at SPC, said loss and damage would occur without ambitious mitigation actions and GHG emissions reductions.

“We’ve experienced some of this to a certain extent where the effects are being felt right now, but we’re also looking at the future and how will those effects get worse. unless mitigation is enhanced and unless technical assistance, for example, is also being enhanced,” says Ronneberg, who explains that the available resources are not fit for purpose to address Current impacts of climate change in Pacific island nations.

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 an opportunity 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, says adaptation is important for NDC implementation in the Pacific islands but needs to focus on reduction programmes. strong minimal.

“We needed the flexibility to describe the adaptation targets to reflect the reality, 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 action adaptation; we really need a global goal that can be done 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 United Nations Office IPS


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© Inter Press Service (2022) – All rights reservedOrigin: Inter Press Service

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