GLOBAL WARMING:The plight of islanders who will lose their homes because of global warming is being brought home to delegates at the summit in Bali, writes Frank McDonald
Almost 1,000 inhabitants of the Carteret atoll, off Papua New Guinea, now look likely to be the first residents of low-lying islands in the Pacific to be evacuated before their homes are engulfed by rising sea levels by 2015, according to the latest predictions.
The tiny islands, one of which has already been cut in two by an oceanic surge, are named after British navigator Phillip Carteret, who was the first to discover them in 1767. Two years ago, a decision was made that they would have to be evacuated to nearby Bougainville.
"This idyllic South Pacific paradise is rapidly turning into a climate-change disaster site," according to Greenpeace. "The combined effects of sea level rising, erosion, storm surges and increased salinity of the soil are making the Carterets uninhabitable".
Salt water has been eating away at coconut palms and making it nearly impossible to grow traditional crops, such as taro and breadfruit. Other islands in Micronesia are facing a similar crisis, including the independent states of Kiribati, Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands.
Although the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has found that sea levels are rising by a relatively minuscule 0.3 millimetres a year, scientists from Australia maintain that the rate of increase in the Pacific Ocean has been significantly higher.
After new sea walls failed to halt the rising tide, the Papua New Guinea government decided in 2003 that people living in the Carterets would be evacuated on a phased basis. Already, almost 1,000 have left, reducing the population by more than half in four years.
"Relocation is our only means of building our future," said Ursula Rakova, who was among the inhabitants of the Carterets and other threatened islands who have made their way to Bali. "We will lose our identity, but we have no choice - the islands are shrinking."
The Micronesian islanders always cut a dash at climate change summits in their traditional grass skirts. Their colourful presence is also a poignant reminder that many people in more vulnerable parts of the world will become refugees as a result of global warming. There were tears in the eyes of some delegates who watched Kiribatis staging a "canoe dance" to dramatise their plight.
That's why the Alliance of Small Island States is to the fore in demanding significant aid from developed countries to help their people adapt to climate change.
However, only $67 million (€46m) has been raised so far - a mere fraction of what is needed.
The UN's adaptation fund is financed by a 2 per cent levy on the value of projects approved under the Kyoto protocol's clean development mechanism, whereby richer countries earn credits by investing in emission reduction schemes in poorer ones.
Achim Steiner, executive director of the UN environment programme, admitted yesterday that "one of the big missing links has been adaptation", and he urged governments in developed countries to build it into their overseas development aid budgets.
His call was supported by the World Meteorological Organisation, which said the reality of climate change - as underlined in the IPCC's Fourth Assessment - should spur investment in adaptation measures to respond to the risks posed by global warming.
"Mitigation alone is unlikely to fully address, in a reasonable time, the challenges that human-induced climate change is likely to bring," said its secretary general, Michel Jarraud.
"Therefore, much greater attention needs to be given to adaptation".