Pacific atolls could "drown" without climate pact
Date: 30-Mar-01
Country: AUSTRALIA
Author: Diana Taylor
A collection of low-lying atolls in the immensity of the South Pacific, Kiribati's 90,000 people were already suffering frequent droughts, severe storms and coastal erosion as sea levels crept up, a government official said.
"Kiribati may be drowning if the sea level continues to rise. There are also a lot of changes in the weather. Frequent droughts, severe storms." said Baranika Etuati, acting director for the Department of Environment and Conservation.
"It is a terrible economic problem, it is our very survival," she told Reuters by telephone.
U.S. President George W. Bush on Wednesday jettisoned the 1997 Kyoto pact by industrialised nations on reducing the greenhouse gas emissions held responsible for global warming, saying developing countries should be included in any treaty.
Developed nations agreed in Kyoto to cut greenhouse gas emissions, especially carbon dioxide, by an average of 5.2 percent below 1990 levels by 2012.
The U.S. backflip alarmed Washington's allies and environmentalists alike.
Few areas in the world are as vulnerable to climate change and rising sea levels as polar ice melts as the Pacific island states, especially atolls that are just a few metres above sea level, according to a recent report by the World Bank.
MASSIVE DAMAGE
The bank said last November South Pacific nations had suffered more than $1.0 billion in damages in the past decade as the sea eroded coastal areas and unusually severe storms were whipped up by changing climatic conditions.
The report warned that coastal infrastructure and land could disappear, there could be more intense cyclones and droughts, crops could fail, fish and reefs could die and mosquito-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue fever could spread.
Environmental group Greenpeace has identified Kiribati and Tuvalu as most at risk. Tuvalu has told New Zealand that many of its 10,500 residents may soon have to find a new home.
"Corals will die and tourism will be affected, fisheries will be affected but it will also impact on social structures, the islands' pysche," said Angie Heffernan, a Greenpeace climate campaigner based in the Fijian capital Suva.
"The very countries which are least responsible for causing the problem will face the full brunt of climate change."
The South Pacific Forum, grouping 16 island states including Australia and New Zealand, said the U.S. announcement was "disappointing" given Washington's influential role.