'No community is immune to climate change impact:' Tuvalu's prime minister calls for global action on sea-level rise

A 16-year-old child swims in the flooded area of Aberao village in Kiribati. The Pacific island is one of the countries worst affected by sea-level rise. Photo courtesy of UNICEF

By Pacific Island Times News Staff

Feleti P. Teo, Tuvalu’s prime minister, highlighted the urgent need for global collaboration to combat the existential threat posed by climate change and rising sea levels.

“No nation, no city and no community are immune to the impacts of climate change, nor should they be required to address the devastating effects of sea level rise on their own,” Teo said in his address on June 7 during the opening segment of the Ocean Rise and Resilience Coalition Summit in Nice, France.

Feleti P. Teo

The summit, which continues until June 13, brings together representatives of coastal cities and regions, and from island states threatened by rising sea levels, as well as key stakeholders, such as scientific institutions, financial organizations and civil society representatives.

The summit’s highlight was the official launch of the Ocean Rise and Coastal Resilience Coalition, an initiative to bring together decision-makers and stakeholders to design and support the implementation of concrete adaptation and resilience responses addressing the impacts of sea-level rise on coastal areas.

The coalition will also seek to address significant climate impacts to which coastal territories are exposed, such as erosion, submersion, flooding, salinization, extreme rainfalls, destruction of natural habitats, and their consequences for coastal cities and regions, their populations, infrastructure and activities. 

Teo emphasized that low-lying nations like Tuvalu are uniquely vulnerable to climate anomalies.

"Sea level rise poses the greatest existential threat to Tuvalu’s economies, to our culture and heritage, and to the future viability of the very land that nourished and sustained our ancestors for centuries,” he said.

The prime minister expressed strong support of the newly formed Ocean Rise and Coastal Resilience Coalition’s mission and advocated for the promotion of key objectives.

He called for mobilizing leaders and practitioners to share innovative solutions, integrating local and scientific knowledge for tailored adaptation strategies, and facilitating access to finance for infrastructure resilience.

“Finding the right solutions will require statesmanship and empathy, beginning with an acknowledgment that a situation globally caused must also have a globally just and equitable solution,” he said.

Olivier Poivre d’Arvor, the French president’s special envoy to the UN Ocean Conference, said the summit’s goal is to find ways to “ensure that our coastal cities and regions remain vibrant hubs of life, culture, nature and well-being."

Christian Estrosi, Nice mayor and president of the newly formed coalition, described its goal to “adapt our territories, protect our populations, and preserve our biodiversity, giving ourselves every chance to face together the greatest challenges of the century: global climate change.”

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