UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned on Thursday that some areas of the Pacific Ocean are at risk of being “wiped out” by hurricanes, ocean heatwaves and rising sea levels caused by climate change.
“Rising and rising sea levels pose a significant threat to Samoa, the Pacific and other small island developing states, and these challenges require strong international action,” he said during a visit to Apia, the capital of Samoa.
Although Pacific countries contribute only 0.02 per cent of global carbon emissions, the Secretary-General noted that they “are on the front lines of the climate crisis, facing extreme weather events, from violent tropical cyclones to record ocean heat waves.”
Guterres said the future of the islands depends on limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, a goal that nearly 200 countries agreed to work towards at the 2015 UN Climate Change Conference.
He urged rich countries to respect their commitments to finance the consequences of climate change in developing countries, and called for international action to combat overfishing and plastic pollution in the Pacific Ocean in particular.
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