The UN chief calls rising seas a “global catastrophe” that puts Pacific havens in particular at risk
NUKU'ALOFA, Tonga: Highlighting seas that are rising at an accelerating rate, particularly in the far more vulnerable Pacific island nations, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has issued yet another climate SOS to the world. This time he said those initials stood for “save our seas”.
The United Nations and World Meteorological Organization issued reports on Monday of worsening sea-level rise, fueled by global warming and melting ice sheets and glaciers. They highlight how the Southwest Pacific is not only affected by rising oceans, but also by other climate change effects of ocean acidification and marine heat waves.
Guterres toured Samoa and Tonga and made his climate plea from Tonga's capital on Tuesday at a meeting of the Pacific Islands Forum, whose member countries are among those most at risk from 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 entirely created by humanity. A crisis that will soon swell to an almost unimaginable scale with no lifeboat to take us back to safety.”
“A global catastrophe puts this Pacific paradise at risk,” he said. “The ocean is overflowing.”
A report that Guterres' office commissioned found that sea levels above 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 foot) of rising seas, while Suva-B, Fiji had 29 centimeters (11.4 inches).
“This puts Pacific island nations at great risk,” Guterres said. About 90 percent of people in the region live within 5 kilometers (3 miles) of rising oceans, he said.
Since 1980, Guam's coastal flooding has increased from twice a year to 22 times a year. It went from five times a year to 43 times a year in the Cook Islands. In Pago Pago, American Samoa, coastal flooding has gone from zero to 102 times a year, according to the WMO State of the Climate in the Southwest Pacific 2023 report.
While the western edges of the Pacific are seeing sea level rise about twice the global average, the central Pacific is closer to the global average, the WMO said.
Sea levels are rising faster in the western tropical Pacific due to melting ice in West Antarctica, warmer waters and ocean currents, UN officials said.
Guterres said he could see 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 high school students and local activists from across the Pacific marched for climate justice a few blocks away.
One of the marchers was Itinterunga Rae of the Barnaban Human Rights Defenders Network, whose people were forced generations ago to move to Fiji from their home on the island of Kiribati due to environmental degradation. Rae said abandoning Pacific islands should not be seen as a solution to rising seas.
“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. Barnabans were cut off from the source of their culture and heritage, he said.
“The alarm is warranted,” said S. Jeffress Williams, a retired US Geological Survey sea level scientist. He said it was particularly bad for the Pacific islands because most of the islands are at low elevations, so people are more likely to get hurt. Three outside experts said the sea level reports accurately reflect what is happening.
The Pacific is being hit hard despite producing just 0.2 percent of the heat-trapping gases that cause climate change and expand oceans, the UN said. The biggest chunk of sea rise comes from the melting of the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets. Melting glaciers on land add to this, and warmer water also expands based on the laws of physics.
Antarctica and Greenland's “melting has accelerated greatly over the last three to four decades due to the high rate of warming at the poles,” Williams, who was not part of the reports, said in an email.
About 90 percent of the heat trapped by greenhouse gases ends up in the oceans, the UN said.
Globally, sea level rise is accelerating, the UN report says, echoing peer-reviewed studies. The rate is now the fastest in 3,000 years, Guterres said.
Between 1901 and 1971, the average global sea rise was 1.3 centimeters per decade, according to the UN report. Between 1971 and 2006 it jumped to 1.9 centimeters per decade, then between 2006 and 2018 it was up to 3.7 centimeters per decade. In the past decade, seas have risen by 4.8 centimeters (1.9 inches).
The UN report also highlighted cities in the 20 richest nations, which account for 80% of heat-trapping gases, where rising seas swirl into large population centers. Those cities where sea level rise over the past 30 years has been at least 50% higher than the global average 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 pointed out that flooding in New York City during Superstorm Sandy in 2012 was made worse by rising seas. A 2021 study said climate-driven sea-level rise added $8 billion to storm costs.
Guterres is stepping up his rhetoric about what he calls “climate chaos” and has urged richer nations to step up efforts to cut carbon emissions, end fossil fuel use and help poorer nations. However, countries' energy plans show they will produce twice the amount of fossil fuels in 2030 than the amount that would limit warming to internationally agreed levels, a 2023 UN report found.
