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Pacific island leaders highlighted the growing threat posed by climate change at the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Friday, warning that rising seas, natural disasters and global instability are undermining development across the region, according to Anadolu Agency.
Tuvalu Prime Minister Feleti Teo said sea-level rise was “not a future threat” but a “present reality” for his country. He described climate change as “the single greatest existential threat to Tuvalu’s survival, security, and sustainable development”.
Teo said a coastal adaptation project had reclaimed 15.3 hectares (38 acres) of elevated land on the capital Funafuti, with a further 10 hectares still being reclaimed. He called for climate finance to be delivered as grants at the scale needed to address unavoidable climate impacts and rising loss and damage.
He also urged faster progress on the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly SDG 14, which focuses on life below water.
Natural disasters threaten years of development
Solomon Islands Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele said his archipelagic country remained highly vulnerable to external shocks. A single natural disaster, he warned, could erase years of national development.
Manele said the UN’s Multidimensional Vulnerability Index better reflected the structural weaknesses and limited resilience of small island states than income-based measures alone.
He added that armed conflicts, energy crises and disruptions to global trade were placing additional pressure on small island economies. Higher fuel prices, he said, were increasing the cost of shipping, electricity, food and essential services.
Global military spending exceeded $2.9 trillion last year, Manele said, far surpassing official development assistance and climate finance for developing countries. “In less than 18 days, the world spends more on arms than developed countries provide in a full year of climate finance,” he said.
“We have only one Earth”
Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape said “we have only one Earth” and urged world leaders to put human welfare, peace and environmental protection ahead of war and narrow geopolitical interests.
“What value is development if we destroy the environment that sustains human life?” Marape asked, citing disappearing forests, polluted oceans and an increasingly unstable climate.
He said the challenges facing humanity did not recognise the size of economies, the strength of militaries or national borders.
Separately, leaders of the Pacific Islands Forum met with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Discussions covered implementation of the Blue Pacific Ocean of Peace Declaration, as well as reform processes involving the forum and the United Nations.
The Pacific Islands Forum has 18 members: Australia, the Cook Islands, Fiji, French Polynesia, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. American Samoa and Guam are associate members.
