Pacific regions facing climate ‘annihilation’, says UN chief Antonio Guterres

Sub: IR

Sec: Places in news

Context:

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that Pacific territories face severe threats from climate-induced cyclones, ocean heatwaves, and rising sea levels.

Details:

During his visit to Samoa, he stressed that the fate of these islands hinges on limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, as outlined in the 2015 Paris climate agreement.
Despite the Pacific region contributing just 0.02% of global carbon emissions, it is disproportionately affected by the climate crisis, with rising sea levels posing an existential threat to millions of Pacific Islanders.

Pacific ISLAND Forum

The Pacific Islands Forum brings the region together to address pressing issues and challenges, and foster collaboration and cooperation in the pursuit of shared goals. Founded in 1971, it comprises 18 members: Australia, Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, French Polynesia, Kiribati, Nauru, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Republic of Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.
The group’s 18 member states, mostly low-lying islands and atolls, sometimes just a few feet above sea level, are particularly vulnerable to climate change. Predicted rises in water levels are set to leave much of the region uninhabitable by the middle of this century.

Pacific Resilience Facility (PRF)

Among their most ambitious mitigation efforts is the Pacific Resilience Facility (PRF), which aims to provide financial support to communities often overlooked by international donors. The “Pacific-owned and led” financial institution is scheduled to commence operations in 2025 and will help communities become more resilient to climate change and natural disasters.
A regional financing facility with a target capital of US$1.5 billion, established by the Pacific Islands Forum to build community preparedness and resilience against the impacts of climate change and the frequent and intense disasters that hit the region every year.
The leaders will probably endorse an earlier recommendation to host the facility in Tonga at next week’s meeting, but raising the funding for the facility remains a major hurdle.
Pacific nations aim to raise $500m for the PRF by 2026 but have so far only secured $116m – $100m of which has been pledged by Australia, with the United States, China, Saudi Arabia and Turkey committing a total of $16m.
These countries have come up with far-reaching 2050 Strategy for a Blue Pacific Continent.

Pacific Islands

Three major groups of islands in the Pacific Ocean are Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia.
The indigenous inhabitants of the Pacific Islands are referred to as Pacific Islanders.
The Pacific Island region covers more than 300,000 square miles (800,000 square km) of land—of which New Zealand and the island of New Guinea make up approximately nine-tenths—and millions of square miles of ocean.
Most Pacific islands are coral formations, although all of these rest on volcanic or other cores.

It excludes the following –

the neighbouring island continent of Australia,
the Asia-related Indonesian, Philippine,
Japanese archipelagoes, and the Ryukyu, Bonin, Volcano, and Kuril island arcs that project seaward from Japan
the Aleutian chain or such isolated islands of the Pacific Ocean as the Juan Fernández group off the coast of South America.

Melanesia

The great arc of islands located north and east of Australia and south of the Equator is called Melanesia (from the Greek words melas, “black,” and nēsos, “island”) for the predominantly dark-skinned peoples of New Guinea island, the Bismarck Archipelago, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu (the New Hebrides), New Caledonia, and Fiji.

Micronesia

North of the Equator and east of the Philippines are the islands of Micronesia, which form an arc that ranges from Palau, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands in the west eastward through the Federated States of Micronesia (the Caroline Islands), Nauru, and the Marshall Islands to Kiribati.

Polynesia

In the eastern Pacific, largely enclosed within a huge triangle formed by the Hawaiian Islands to the north, New Zealand to the southwest, and Easter Island (Rapa Nui) far to the east, are the many (“poly”) islands of Polynesia.

Samoa:

Independent State of Samoa (formerly Western Samoa until 1997).
Due to the Samoans’ seafaring skills, early European explorers referred to the island group as the “Navigator Islands.”
A Polynesian island country consisting of:
- Two main islands: Savai’i and Upolu.
- Two smaller inhabited islands: Manono and Apolima.
- Several smaller uninhabited islands, including the Aleipata Islands (Nu’utele, Nu’ulua, Fanuatapu, and Namua).
Capital and Largest City: Apia.
Location:
- 64 km (40 mi) west of American Samoa, 889 km (552 mi) northeast of Tonga, 1,152 km (716 mi) northeast of Fiji, 483 km (300 mi) east of Wallis and Futuna, 1,151 km (715 mi) southeast of Tuvalu, 519 km (322 mi) south of Tokelau, 4,190 km (2,600 mi) southwest of Hawaii, 610 km (380 mi) northwest of Niue.

Historical and Cultural Background:

Early Settlement: The Lapita people discovered and settled the Samoan Islands around 3,500 years ago, developing the Samoan language and cultural identity.
Colonial History:
- Samoa was a colony of the German Empire from 1899 to 1915.
- It then came under joint British and New Zealand colonial administration until it gained independence on 1 January 1962.
Political Status:
- Samoa is a unitary parliamentary democracy with 11 administrative divisions.
- It is a sovereign state and a member of the Commonwealth of Nations.
- Western Samoa was admitted to the United Nations on 15 December 1976.

Source: TH