Graphic locates all PIF member states, highlighting this year’s forum host, Tuvalu, and its grave concerns for rising sea levels.
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ENVIRONMENT

Climate change worries to be raised at 50th PIF meeting

By Ninian Carter

August 13, 2019 - August 16, 2019 - The 50th Pacific Island Forum (PIF) leaders meeting in Funafuti will focus on climate change, the threat of which could see some states disappear within 80 years from rising sea levels.

The forum’s Boe Declaration specifically identifies the threat from climate change as “the single greatest threat to the livelihood, security and wellbeing of the peoples of the Pacific”.

The PIF communiqué on the declaration calls on countries to meet their emissions reduction commitments under the Paris Agreement.

Climate disaster has already arrived for many in the region, with some PIF nations barely poking their noses above the ocean – Tuvalu lists its highest point as 4.6 metres – and rising oceans are eating into their limited land mass.

The current predicted sea level rise of 2 meters by 2100 will mean total submersion for several PIF states. The climate change threat of more numerous and ferocious cyclones adds to the region’s fear for the future.

Sources
PUBLISHED: 29/07/2019; STORY: Graphic News
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