UN Chief urges action: Save Our Seas now

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UNITED NATIONS: Antonio Guterres, United Nations Secretary-General has issued a stark warning on climate change, urging countries to “Save Our Seas” (SOS) as he highlighted a crisis of “unimaginable scale” driven by greenhouse gases and rising sea levels.

Speaking at a meeting of Pacific Island regional leaders in Nuku’alofa, Tonga, on Tuesday, Guterres emphasised the gravity of the situation, stating that “there is no lifeboat to take us back to safety.”

“This is a crazy situation: Rising seas are a crisis entirely of humanity’s making. A crisis that will soon swell to an almost unimaginable scale,” he said. “The reason is clear: Greenhouse gases—overwhelmingly generated by burning fossil fuels—are cooking our planet. And the sea is taking the heat—literally.”

Nuku’alofa is currently hosting over 1,000 international delegates for the Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting, which will run until August 30. Climate change and its impact on the Pacific’s low-lying communities are central topics at the gathering, which includes leaders from some of the world’s most vulnerable nations. Guterres, who last attended the Leaders Meeting in 2019, highlighted the unique vulnerability of the Pacific islands, where approximately 90 per cent of people live within five kilometers (three miles) of the coast, and the average elevation is just one to two meters (3.2-6.5 feet) above sea level.

During his time in the Pacific, Guterres is also expected to visit Samoa. He warned that without significant cuts to emissions, the Pacific Islands could experience at least 15 centimeters (six inches) of additional sea level rise by mid-century, along with more than 30 days per year of coastal flooding in some areas. “We save the Pacific, we also save ourselves. The world must act and answer the SOS before it is too late,” he urged.

One of the Pacific Islands’ key climate change mitigation initiatives is the Pacific Resilience Facility, a “Pacific-owned and led” financial institution set to begin operations in 2025 to help local communities become more resilient to climate change. However, the facility is currently facing a significant funding shortfall from international donors. Guterres reiterated his call to the Group of 20 (G20) nations—the world’s largest emitters—to provide financial support to the most climate-vulnerable countries, saying, “We need a surge in funds to deal with surging seas.”

Guterres’s comments coincided with the release of two UN reports highlighting the worsening sea level rise. A World Meteorological Organisation report on rising sea levels in the Pacific and a UN Climate Action Team report on surging seas in a warming world both underscore the urgent situation, according to Guterres. The Climate Action Team report revealed that sea levels in Nuku’alofa rose by 21 centimeters (8.3 inches) between 1990 and 2020, more than double the global average of 10 centimeters (3.9 inches).

“Today’s reports confirm that relative sea levels in the Southwestern Pacific have risen even more than the global average—in some locations, by more than double the global increase in the past 30 years,” Guterres said. The UN General Assembly is scheduled to hold a special session on September 25 to address the existential threat posed by rising sea levels.