Rising Nations Initiative

In this century, several Pacific island nations will lose considerable territory to rising sea level with some becoming completely uninhabitable. The Pacific atoll countries of Tuvalu, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands and the Maldives are at the very forefront of an existential crisis.

The irreversible impacts of climate change are already shifting the world order, politically, economically and socially. Current efforts to limit global average temperature rise, even if achieved, will fail to avert many climate tipping points, which science shows are ‘baked in’ to a global average temperature increase of 1.5C. Whilst nobody is immune to the impacts of the climate crisis, the peoples of Pacific atoll countries, in our generation or the next, will be unable to exist on the islands that have nurtured their ancestors for centuries.

Pacific island countries account for 0.03% of global emissions today yet they will bear the brunt of inevitable sea level rise. Internationally agreed treaties and conventions do not make adequate provision for the protection of statehood and sovereignty under the profound circumstances faced by the small low-lying nations.

Rising sea level causes salt water to permeate aquifers, reducing available water for drinking and agriculture. It also brings higher tides, increasing storm intensity and flooding, and weakening natural defences. Tourism and the availability of fish-stock perish along with the bleaching of coral reefs, pushing up the cost of living and forcing families to leave their communities until eventually nations themselves are threatened.