EVE BURNS
Reporting from Palau
The first resolution aimed at putting sea level rise at the top of the international agenda will be introduced at the United Nations later this month.
The development is being championed by President Hilda Heine and the RMI government.
“This is the first time that we’ve done that, and I think it carries weight,” President Heine told the Journal Wednesday during the Pacific Islands Forum in Palau.
“And we want to emphasize the 1.5 (degree target). We want to emphasize the financing for all the important issues … and the fact that we have to rely on science.
“Those are all the issues that are really important right now, to make sure that we keep to the Paris Agreement (of 2015) and that we’re supporting that. And I think having that declaration will carry much weight. Because usually we all go to the COP (annual global climate summit) individually as a country and put our statement there, but with this one, there is a unified position. So I think that should carry more weight.”
As surprising as it may seem, sea level rise has not been at the top of climate discussions at the international level. This proposed UN declaration aims to change that dynamic, focusing on a problem that affects many countries of the world, not only islands.
The Marshall Islands is part of the Coalition for Addressing Sea Level Rise and its Existential Threats, a multinational consortium of nations that is promoting the new declaration that will go to the UN General Assembly later this month when it meets in New York City.
“We are deeply concerned about sea level rise,” states the declaration. “Sea level rise is not a distant scenario but a real and lived experience for many. Rising sea levels are primarily driven by ocean warming and melting ice sheets and glaciers, and we note with concern this phenomenon is accelerating.
“Adaptation and mitigation action, based on the best available science and knowledge, is essential to addressing sea level rise.”
The declaration states: “Sea level rise is a global issue and common concern of humankind.”
The declaration calls for “mainstreaming of sea level rise into all relevant processes.”
The Marshall Islands experiences the inexorable rise in sea level through the multiple ocean inundations per year that wash in, affecting atolls around the country.