UN chief calls rising sea levels a “global disaster” that threatens Pacific paradises in particular
NUKU'ALOFA, Tonga: United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has issued another climate SOS to the world, warning of seas rising at an accelerated rate, particularly in the far more vulnerable Pacific island states. This time he said those initials meant “save our seas”.
The United Nations and World Meteorological Organization released reports on Monday about worsening sea-level rise, fueled by global warming and melting ice sheets and glaciers. They highlight how the Southwest Pacific is not only being harmed by rising ocean levels, but also the other effects of climate change from ocean acidification and sea warming.
Guterres visited Samoa and Tonga and delivered his climate plea from the Tongan capital on Tuesday at a meeting of the Pacific Islands Forum, whose member countries are among the countries most at risk of climate change. Next month, the United Nations General Assembly is holding a special session to discuss rising seas.
“This is a crazy situation,” Guterres said. “Rising seas are a crisis that humanity has created entirely for itself.” A crisis that will soon grow to almost unimaginable proportions without a lifeboat to take us back to safety.”
“A global catastrophe threatens this Pacific paradise,” he said. “The ocean overflows.”
The report, commissioned by Guterres' office, found that sea levels touching Tonga's capital, Nuku'alofa, rose by 21 centimeters (8.3 inches) between 1990 and 2020, twice the global average of 10 centimeters (3 .9 inches). Apia, Samoa, saw 31 centimeters (1 ft) of rising seas, while Suva-B, Fiji had 29 centimeters (11.4 in).
“This puts Pacific island nations in grave danger,” Guterres said. About 90 percent of people in the region live within 5 kilometers (3 miles) of rising oceans, he said.
Since 1980, coastal flooding on Guam has increased from twice a year to 22 times a year. In the Cook Islands, it went from five times a year to 43 times a year. According to the WMO State of the Climate in the South-West Pacific 2023 report, coastal flooding in Pago Pago, American Samoa has decreased from zero to 102 times a year.
While the western edges of the Pacific are rising at about twice the global average, the central Pacific is closer to the global average, the WMO said.
Sea levels in the western tropical Pacific are rising faster due to melting ice from West Antarctica, warmer waters and ocean currents, UN officials said.
Guterres said he sees changes since he was last in the region in May 2019.
As he met in Nuku'alofa on Tuesday with Pacific nations about the environment at their annual leaders' summit, a hundred local high school students and activists from across the Pacific marched for climate justice a few blocks away.
One of the marchers was Itinterunga Rae of the Barnaban Network of Human Rights Defenders, whose people were forced to relocate to Fiji from their home on the island of Kiribati generations ago due to environmental degradation. Rae said abandoning the Pacific islands should not be seen as a solution to rising sea levels.
“We promote climate mobility as a solution to be safe from your island that has been destroyed by climate change, but it is not the safest option,” he said. Barnabians were cut off from the source of their culture and heritage, he said.
“The alarm is warranted,” said S. Jeffress Williams, a former US Geological Survey sea-level scientist. He said it's particularly bad for the Pacific Islands because most of the islands are at low altitudes, making people more likely to get hurt. Three outside experts said the sea level reports accurately reflect what is happening.
The Pacific is hard hit, despite producing only 0.2 percent of the heat-trapping gases that cause climate change and ocean expansion, the UN said. Most of the sea rise comes from the melting of the ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland. Added to this are the melting land glaciers and, based on the laws of physics, the warmer water also expands.
“The melting of Antarctica and Greenland has accelerated considerably over the past three to four decades due to the high rate of warming at the poles,” said Williams, who was not part of the news.
About 90 percent of the heat trapped by greenhouse gases goes into the oceans, the United Nations said.
Globally, sea level rise is accelerating, a UN report said, following peer-reviewed studies. The rate is now the fastest in 3,000 years, Guterres said.
Between 1901 and 1971, the global average sea level rise was 1.3 centimeters per decade, according to a UN report. Between 1971 and 2006 it jumped to 1.9 centimeters per decade, between 2006 and 2018 it was up to 3.7 centimeters per decade. In the last decade, the sea has risen by 4.8 centimeters (1.9 in).
The UN report also highlighted cities in the richest 20 countries, which account for 80 percent of the heat-trapping gases, where rising seas intersect in major population centers. Cities where sea levels have risen at least 50 percent above the global average over the past 30 years include Shanghai; Perth, Australia; London; Atlantic City, New Jersey; Boston; Miami; and New Orleans.
New Orleans topped the list with 10.2 inches (26 centimeters) of sea level rise between 1990 and 2020. UN officials emphasized that flooding in New York during Superstorm Sandy in 2012 exacerbated rising sea levels. A 2021 study reported that climate-induced sea level rise increased the cost of the storm by $8 billion.
Guterres is stepping up his rhetoric about what he calls “climate chaos” and has called on richer countries to step up efforts to reduce carbon emissions, end the use of fossil fuels and help poorer countries. Yet countries' energy plans show they will produce double the amount of fossil fuels in 2030 than would limit warming to internationally agreed levels, according to a 2023 UN report.
