It was no accident that Mr. Guterres had chosen to once again visit the area back of important conferences in upcoming months, according to Dr. Meg Keen, a senior fellow in the Pacific Islands Program at the Lowy Institute.
These include the UN Summit for the Future in New York, which takes place from September 22 to September 23, and the COP29 weather agreements in Azerbaijan every year from November 11 to 22.
It serves as a means of putting social pressure on the system, it says. He’s trying to create speed, which has helped in the past to draw attention to nations whose very life is in jeopardy, she said.
” And he’s trying to build that momentum in every tangible way, and it’s just not in the Pacific. This is very important here, but it’s important for you too, and I think that’s why he’s trying to make it as substantial as feasible.
” These are about real people, authentic sites. This is significant, and this is a world problem. And so he goes on to say that the Pacific demonstrates why we need to work.
‘ Have OF RESEARCH, LACK OF ATTENTION ‘
A new complex report from the UN, which showed that sea level rise may be occurring more quickly than originally thought, was the catalyst for the mutual offensive.
A international status update was provided by the professional lecture, which incorporated previously unreleased scientific research and highlighted the Pacific region as being especially vulnerable.
It found that waves between 1990 and 2020 had risen 21cm in Nuku’alofa, the Tongan investment playing host to the PIF, a level almost half the world normal.
The world sea level change recorded in 2023, equivalent to 1993 rates, was the highest ever in modern times, dating back to the 19th century. In addition, it has grown more quickly than any other time in the past 3, 000 times.
” Because of sea level rise, the sea is transforming from being a longtime friend into a growing risk,” the UN’s World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General Celeste Saulo told investigators in Nuku’alofa, Tonga, on Tuesday.
The sensation is well known, and its primary causes are the dissolving of land glaciers and the development of seawater as it warms. Based on recent research into glaciers melt relationships, researchers released new findings in the most recent statement.
According to Dr. Rosanne Martyr, a senior scholar at Climate Analytics and a critic of the report,” They have a lot more information then on understanding the types of tipping points, the snow construction itself, which is its own set of science, when these ice sheets could break off, when this melt do happen, and where this fits into the projections we have.”
By the end of the century, the world will be on record for 2.7 degree Celsius of warming thanks to recent climate policies and actions. Under that scenario, sea level rise of 20cm above 2020 amounts may occur by 2050 and 56cm by the end of the century.
With most of the Pacific’s islands and reefs only a few meters above sea level, it would have devastating effects on low-lying regions. Within 5 km of the beach, 90 percent of Pacific Islanders reside.
They “feel the biggest effect,” and they use their words to drive the brakes wherever they can, especially when it comes to emissions. It’s only going to get worse if we do n’t do more to reduce our emissions,” said Dr Martyr.
The most vulnerable countries, including Tuvalu, Kiribati, and the Marshall Islands, were the people spearheading the conscious effort at the PIF and in other communities to put sea level rise on the international agenda, according to Dr. George Carter, co-director of the Australian National University Pacific Institute.
He told CNA from Tonga that their respective administrations have expressed concern about the lack of legislation, financing, and research funding for sea level rise.
You do n’t necessarily have programs or projects that focus on sea level rise, he said, despite having projects that focus on forestry and on disasters in terms of resolving cyclones through humanitarian aid.
” Because of that, there’s not only a lack of studies, but even a lack of focus.