Disaster looming on rising sea levels: island nations
Rising sea levels that could wipe whole nations off the map and
displace scores of millions of people are being overlooked in global
climate change talks, island countries said.
Major emitters are pushing for greenhouse gas emissions cuts that are
too low to prevent devastating sea rises, representatives said at the
World Ocean Conference in Indonesia’s Manado city.
“Dealing with environmental refugees will have a much more serious
impact on the global economy and global security in fact than what wars
have ever done to this planet,” said Rolph Payet, a presidential adviser
from the African island nation of the Seychelles.
Nations under threat from even small rises in sea levels include the
Pacific island states of Kiribati and Tuvalu, while major cities and
vast tracts of heavily populated coastline from Bangladesh to West
Africa could also go under this century.
The five-day conference has attracted hundreds of officials and
experts from 70 countries and is being billed as a prelude to December
talks on a successor to the expiring Kyoto Protocol. Payet said there
had been “zero” serious discussions in top international forums on how
to deal with massive flows of “climate refugees” from low-lying and
drought-prone areas.
The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicted in 2007
that up to 150 million people could be displaced by the effects of
climate change by 2050, which include sea level rises of as much as 59
centimetres (23 inches).
The Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) is pushing for 85 percent
cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
But Payet said the December talks in the Danish capital Copenhagen
look set to produce an emissions cut target that would be too low to
avert disaster.
Nations have also avoided discussing who will accept millions of
people fleeing rising waters and droughts and how to resettle whole
nations which could disappear under the waves this century.
“We have been talking about war refugees, crisis refugees, but not
environmental refugees... it is not an accepted UN word,” Payet said.
AFP
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