UN chief describes rising sea levels as a “global catastrophe” that particularly threatens paradises in the Pacific
NUKU'ALOFA, Tonga: Pointing out that sea levels are rising at an ever-increasing rate, particularly in the far more vulnerable Pacific island nations, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issued another climate SOS call to the world. This time, he said, those initials stand for “Save our Seas.”
The United Nations and the World Meteorological Organization released reports on Monday on worsening sea level rise, exacerbated by global warming and melting ice sheets and glaciers. They underscore that the southwestern Pacific is being damaged not only by rising sea levels but also by other impacts of climate change such as ocean acidification and marine heat waves.
Guterres toured Samoa and Tonga and delivered his climate appeal in 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 will hold a special session to discuss sea level rise.
“This is a crazy situation,” said Guterres. “Rising sea levels are a crisis caused entirely by humanity. A crisis that will soon reach almost unimaginable proportions, and without a lifeboat to take us to safety.”
“A global catastrophe is putting this Pacific paradise in danger,” he said. “The sea is overflowing its banks.”
A report commissioned by Guterres' office found that sea levels at Tonga's capital Nuku'alofa rose by 21 centimeters (8.3 inches) between 1990 and 2020, double the global average of 10 centimeters (3.9 inches). In Apia, Samoa, sea levels rose by 31 centimeters (1 foot), and in Suva-B, Fiji, sea levels rose by 29 centimeters (11.4 inches).
“This puts Pacific island nations at great risk,” Guterres said. About 90 percent of people in the region live less than 5 kilometers from rising sea levels, he said.
Since 1980, the number of coastal floods on Guam has increased from twice to 22 times per year. In the Cook Islands, it has decreased from five times per year to 43 times per year. In Pago Pago in American Samoa, the number of coastal floods has increased from zero to 102 times per year, according to the WMO report “State of the Climate in the South-West Pacific 2023”.
While sea levels in the western parts of the Pacific are rising about twice as fast as the global average, in the central Pacific they are closer to the global average, the WMO said.
UN officials said sea levels in the western tropical Pacific are rising faster due to melting ice from West Antarctica and warmer waters and ocean currents.
Guterres said he could see changes since his last visit to the region in May 2019.
While he met with environmental leaders in Nuku'alofa on Tuesday for the annual Pacific Leaders' Summit, a few blocks away, hundreds of local high school students and activists from across the Pacific region demonstrated for climate justice.
One of the protesters was Itinterunga Rae of the Barnaban Human Rights Defenders Network, whose relatives were forced to relocate their home island of Kiribati to Fiji 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 the island being destroyed by climate change, but it is not the safest option,” he said. The Barnabans are cut off from the source of their culture and heritage, he said.
“The alarm is justified,” said S. Jeffress Williams, a retired sea-level scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey. He said it was especially bad for the Pacific islands because most of the islands are low-lying and therefore there was a greater risk of people being injured. Three outside experts said the sea-level reports accurately reflected what was happening.
The Pacific Ocean is particularly hard hit, even though it produces only 0.2 percent of the heat-trapping gases that cause climate change and ocean expansion, according to the UN. Most of the sea level rise is due to melting ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland. Melting land glaciers are contributing, and warmer water also expands due to the laws of physics.
“Melting in Antarctica and Greenland has accelerated sharply over the past three to four decades due to high warming rates at the poles,” Williams, who was not involved in the reports, said in an email.
About 90 percent of the heat trapped by greenhouse gases ends up in the oceans, the United Nations said.
Sea level rise has accelerated worldwide, says the UN report, which is consistent with other expert-reviewed studies. The rate is now higher than it has been for 3,000 years, said Guterres.
Between 1901 and 1971, the global average sea level rise was 1.3 centimeters per decade, according to the UN report. Between 1971 and 2006, it rose to 1.9 centimeters per decade, and between 2006 and 2018, it rose to 3.7 centimeters per decade. In the last decade, sea levels rose by 4.8 centimeters.
The UN report also highlighted cities in the 20 richest countries, which account for 80 percent of heat-trapping gases, and where rising sea levels are lapping at major urban centers. Cities where sea level rise has been at least 50 percent higher than 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 a sea level rise of 26 centimeters between 1990 and 2020. UN officials stressed that flooding in New York City during Superstorm Sandy in 2012 was made worse by rising sea levels. According to a 2021 study, climate-related sea level rise increased the cost of the storm by $8 billion.
Guterres is ramping up his rhetoric on what he calls “climate chaos,” urging richer countries to step up efforts to cut carbon emissions, end fossil fuel use and help poorer countries. Yet countries' energy plans show they will produce twice as much fossil fuel in 2030 as the amount that would limit warming to internationally agreed levels, according to a 2023 UN report.
