Island Nations Plan for Rising Seas, Mass Migration; Singapore rep "We are reclaiming land and expanding"

Ajay Makan, PlanetArk 15 Nov 07

Hazri Hassan, of Singapore's environment ministry, told Reuters private developers were required to raise land levels by 125 cm (four feet) above sea level, higher than the most dire UN predictions for sea level rises over the next century.

"We are reclaiming land and expanding," Mr Hassan said. "In Singapore it is more cost effective to adapt than retreat."

MALE, Maldives - Countries usually evacuate their citizens because of war or a sudden and catastrophic natural disaster.

For the Pacific island state of Kiribati, the climate change disaster facing the nation is no less dramatic but on a slower time scale and means preparing its 100,000 inhabitants for lives in nations less vulnerable to wild weather and rising seas.

"The breakup of our nation is a possibility," Environment Minister Tetabo Nakara told Reuters on Wednesday on the sidelines of an international meeting of small island states in the Maldives capital Male.

Nakara said two villages had already been evacuated because of rising seas since 2000. A government programme aims to give every adult in the archipelago a trade marketable in neighbouring developed countries within five years.

At the Male meeting, representatives of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) want to present a resolution at a UN climate change conference in Bali next month.

"It is time to put people back at the heart of climate change diplomacy," Maldives President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom told the conference on Tuesday.



Delegates are expected to agree a declaration that climate change threatens the fundamental right to a safe, secure and sustainable environment, forcing developed countries to view rising seas through the prism of human rights.

With a combined population of less than 15 million people and six members who lack UN membership, the 43-strong alliance is a small player in the international community.

But delegates hope to exercise moral authority in Bali by showcasing examples of how climate change is already impacting on individual livelihoods.

"We don't want to give up on our culture and civilisation," Nakara told Reuters. "But we don't want our people to end up as second-class citizens in another country either."

Like the Maldives, St Vincent and the Grenadines in the Caribbean lies just two metres (seven feet) above sea level.


SWALLOWED BY THE SEA

Forced land purchases to build an international airport in 2006 provided the first evidence of major coastal erosion.

"We had owners coming to the government with deeds for five acres (two hectares), but when we surveyed the area, there were only three left," the country's ambassador to the UN explained.

Property records in the country date back no more than a century, showing the speed and scale of erosion. Family estates have been stripped of value overnight, "directly violating an individual's right to property," according to ambassador Camillo Gonsalves.

Insurance companies borne some of the losses, but Gonsalves fears they might introduce an environmental jeopardy clause to exclude coastal erosion in the future.

Island states have also highlighted the limits of international assistance. The St Vincent's government has had to apply to separate funds to construct its international airport and adapt it to rising sea levels.

"We are effectively building the airport and then retrofitting the adaptations at increased costs and with a time lag," Gonsalves says.

Of the AOSIS states, only wealthy Singapore has integrated climate change adaptation into private-sector projects.

Hazri Hassan, of Singapore's environment ministry, told Reuters private developers were required to raise land levels by 125 cm (four feet) above sea level, higher than the most dire UN predictions for sea level rises over the next century.

"We are reclaiming land and expanding," Mr Hassan said. "In Singapore it is more cost effective to adapt than retreat."

But the private sector is more wary about other states experiencing climate change.

OASIS chair Angus Friday is leading negotiations with the World Bank and International Finance Corporation to secure finance for adaptation. "Private sector involvement is a priority," he said. (Editing by David Fogarty)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071114/wl_sthasia_afp/environmentclimatemaldivessummit_071114164415&printer=1;_ylt=AiHsOLSat9l2nGR3P5vmumHQOrgF
Island states plead for action against rising seas

by Mel GunasekeraWed Nov 14, 12:39 PM ET

Dozens of the world's small island nations appealed Wednesday for rapid international action against climate change, fearing it is only a matter of time before they are submerged.

Delegates from 26 low-lying nations, including Tuvalu, Micronesia, Kiribati and Palau, ended two-days of talks in this Maldives tourist by closing ranks ahead of a global climate change meeting in Bali in December.

"We are the most affected. We deserve more support to protect our countries, our communities, from rising sea levels... our voices, our concerns must be heard and taken note of," Maldivian Environment Minister Ahmed Abdualla said.

He said low-lying nations urged the United Nations to include the human dimension of global climate change -- in other words the very survival of low-lying islanders -- on the agenda at Bali.

More than 100 ministers are expected to attend the Bali meeting, which aims to secure the agreement of nations to negotiate a new regime to combat climate change when the current phase of Kyoto Protocol ends in 2012.

"We hope leaders who attend the Bali summit will take our concerns seriously," said a representative of the Comoros Permanent Mission to the United Nations, El-Marouf Mohamed.

Small nations feel the human element will give a new dimension to their fight to persuade bigger nations to cut back on the greenhouse gases that are causing global warming.

"We are using a different lever, to remind bigger countries of their moral obligations to honour their promises," Grenada's permanent representative to the UN, Angus Friday, told reporters.

Experts have warned that global warming will melt glaciers and polar ice caps, leading to a sharp increase in sea levels before the end of the 21st century.

A United Nations climate panel recently said world sea levels are likely to rise up to 59 centimetres (23 inches) by 2100.

"We are seeing unusual rises in sea water levels, it's affecting our crops, homes, it's threatening our livelihoods," Fiji's Environment Minister Bernadette Rounds Ganilau said.

"Time is running out."

Maldivian President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom also warned that a one-metre rise in sea levels would herald the "death of a nation."

Scientific opinion is divided on how soon that could happen, with estimates ranging from 30 to 100 years.

He told delegates that the tidal surges experienced on 80 of the Maldives' 200 inhabited islands earlier this year were "a grim reminder of the devastating tsunami of 2004 and a clear warning of future disasters."

Strengthening sea defences around 50 of the inhabited islands in the Maldives will cost about 1.5 billion dollars, officials here have said.

Home to 330,000 Sunni Muslims, Maldives is a top destination for well-heeled tourists and celebrities attracted to the white, palm-fringed beaches, where holiday bungalows are built on stilts over turquoise lagoons.

Tourism and fishing together account for two-thirds of the country's economy of just under a billion dollars, and have made it one of the richest nations in South Asia with a per capita annual income of 2,700 dollars.

http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/45328/story.htm

Island States Urge UN to Study Rights, Climate Link
Story by Ajay Makan
MALDIVES: November 15, 2007


MALE, Maldives - Small island states called on the United Nations on Wednesday to assess whether a link exists between failure to tackle climate change, which threatens to wipe their countries off the map, and human rights.


But the 26 nations from around the globe failed to agree on an resolution backing a human rights agenda meant to take on big greenhouse gas polluters at a UN climate change summit in Bali, Indonesia next month.

The Maldives and other vocal island states blame the United States and other big polluters for climate change and say their inaction to curb greenhouse gas emissions will destroy their economies through rising seas and wild weather.

The Alliance of Small Island States used the two-day meeting to highlight what it said was a human right "to live in a safe and sustaining environment". It said "climate change directly and fundamentally undermines that right".

But Jamaica and Antigua and Barbuda were cautious, delegates said, that an explicit recognition of human rights would boost pressure on their own governments to improve political rights.

The Alliance represents 43 countries with a population of fewer than 15 million people, ranging from wealthy Singapore in Southeast Asia, Fiji, Kiribati and Tuvalu in the Pacific and Caribbean nations.

Alliance delegates will meet international lawyers and civil society groups to develop a common agenda ahead of the Bali summit, which aims to kick-off negotiations for global pact to replace the Kyoto Protocol.

Alliance Chair Angus Friday expressed optimism the group could still adopt a common platform at the Bali summit. He also hailed the resolution as a first step towards an international recognition of the link between climate change and human rights.

"We have to be realistic about the timescale, but we have started a process today," he told reporters.

The resolution at the end of the meeting called for a UN study into linkages between human rights and climate change and a March 2009 debate at the UN Human Rights Council.

"The right to life as we know it is threatened. My people survive by praying," Tuvalu's ambassador to the UN told Reuters.

Delegates met at one of the Maldives' flagship deluxe resorts, refurbished following the 2004 tsunami, a reminder of the country's vulnerability to rising seas. (Editing by David Fogarty and Michael Winfrey)