UN SOUNDS ALARM ON THREAT TO PACIFIC NATIONS’ SECURITY POSED BY CLIMATE CHANGE

With rising sea levels threatening to inundate Pacific Island nations, United Nations officials have issued a call for urgent action to be taken to ensure that human security and development gains are not reversed.

"We recognize climate change to be a critical development challenge with enormous implications for the entire range of development concerns: poverty, livelihoods, food security, conflict and social cohesion, to name a few," Ajay Chhibber, Director of the Asia and the Pacific Regional Bureau of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), said at the two-day 40th Pacific Leaders Forum in Cairns, Australia, which ends today.

Mr. Chhibber also warned that during the current financial turmoil, global warming could potentially reverse "hard-won development gains in the region, which could compromise our collective ability to achieve the Millennium Development Goals [that seek to slash poverty, hunger and a host of other social ills by 2015] and plans for a prosperous, peaceful and secure region."

The Pacific region is one of the most disaster-prone areas in the world, with natural hazards likely to worsen as the planet's temperature rises.

Some villagers in Kiribati have already been forced from their homes by rising sea levels, but officials have cautioned that relocation could spark conflict due to traditional land rights.

It is clear that climate change "adds to the scale and complexity of human movement and displacement in the region," said Richard Towle, the Regional Representative for Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and the Pacific for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

"We need to act now if we are to find solutions for people whose homes, lands and livelihoods are, as we speak, being destroyed by rising sea levels and violent fluctuations in weather patterns in the region," he added.

In a bid to quell potential climate change-driven conflicts before they erupt, UNDP is helping to set up a new programme in the Pacific region in partnership with other organizations in the area.

The "Interface between Climate Change, Disasters and Potential for Conflict in the Pacific" initiative seeks to boost national and regional groups' ability to prevent and manage violent conflicts triggered by global warming.

"Climate change is increasing the severity and frequency of disasters, which are causing displacement, livelihood insecurity and increasing instability," according to Jean-Luc Stalon, senior regional advisor on Crisis Prevention and Recovery at UNDP's Pacific Centre in Suva, Fiji.

"We need to focus on integrating climate change risks into conflict prevention efforts – before it is too late and too costly," he warned.

In his message to the Forum, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced yesterday that the UN is establishing a new system to mitigate the impact of the global economic crisis on poorer countries, such as those in the Pacific region that are already being hobbled by climate change.

"The full repercussions (of the economic crisis) have yet to be felt, but already we know we must do our utmost to prevent the unfavourable economic climate from undermining our efforts to fight climate change and achieve the Millennium Development Goals," Mr. Ban said.

"For the Pacific, the downturn is likely to hit hard, limiting resources for development, leading to job losses and a decline in exports, and creating a risk of instability," he added in the message, delivered by Supachai Panitchpakdi, Secretary-General of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

The new Global Impact and Vulnerability Alert System will allow the world body "to better track the impact of the crisis – and thereby better respond."

Noting that climate change is at the top of the Forum's agenda, the Secretary-General called on participants to enhance efforts to 'seal the deal' at the international meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December which will strive to reach a new pact on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

"Toward that end, I urge you to attend the climate summit that I will be convening next month in New York, and use that gathering to create the political momentum we need for an agreement," he said.
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Sea Levels Rising Twice As Fast As Predicted.

Sea levels are predicted to rise twice as fast as was forecast by the UN only two years ago scientists said on Tuesday in a new warning about climate change. Rapidly melting ice sheets... are likely to push up sea levels by a meter or more by 2100, swamping coastal cities and obliterating the living space of 600 million people who live in deltas, low-lying areas and small island states.

The new estimate appears to significantly worsen the predictions of a report in 2007 by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which said sea level could rise by up to 59 centimeters this century. The IPCC estimate had been based largely on the expansion of oceans from higher temperatures, rather than meltwater and the impact of glaciers breaking into the sea.

Using the new model, 'we get a range of sea level rise by 2100 between 75 and 190 centimeters when we apply the IPCC's temperature scenarios for the future,' said climate expert Stefan Rahmstorf of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. Even if the world manages to dramatically cut the emission of greenhouse gases driving global warming, the 'best estimate' is about one meter (3.25 feet), he said.

MALDIVES: CLIMATE CHANGE THREATENS RIGHT TO HOUSING, SAYS UN EXPERT

MALDIVES: CLIMATE CHANGE THREATENS RIGHT TO HOUSING, SAYS UN EXPERT
New York, Feb 26 2009 12:00PM

Rising sea levels and coastal erosion, both wrought by climate change, threaten the viability of Maldives, but overcrowding and other impacts are already felt by the island nation's 300,000 people, a United Nations independent expert cautioned today.

After an eight-day visit to country, Raquel Rolnik, Special Rapporteur on adequate housing, said that "Maldives and its Atolls, because of their unique geological and topographic aspects and their fragile and delicate environmental system, are already experiencing the impacts of climate change."

This jeopardizes the survival of the nation, which could be inundated by water, but more immediately, it jeopardizes the right to housing due to the scarcity of land.

Ms. Rolnik stressed the responsibility of the international community to urgently support adaptation strategies, noting that "the post-2004 Indian Ocean tsunami reconstruction process in Maldives can be a source of precious lessons."

Over the past four years, donors and agencies have mobilized over $400 million in aid, but the Rapporteur voiced concern over the allocation of the resources and their management by Maldivian authorities.

"In the new resettlement sites that I visited, I detected a lack of participation in the decision-making process concerning relocation, the design of new houses and the infrastructure, which resulted in new structures that were not always compatible with the livelihood of the communities," she said.

Additionally, the expert noted that the tsunami may have been used by authorities as an opportunity to relocate communities, which has provoked serious conflicts. Today, there are still 3,500 people uprooted by the 2004 disaster who are still living in temporary shelters.

The reconstruction process has also resulted in a surge in the price of construction materials, putting upward pressure on rental prices and aggravating overcrowding.

Over 80,000 migrants from Bangladesh and other South Asian countries live in Maldives, with half of them working in the construction sector, and the Rapporteur said she was concerned over their housing and living conditions.

She called for a "human rights-based approach" to address the housing situation in the country, calling for the Government and international organizations to promote public participation in making key decisions.

Ms. Rolnik, who reports to the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council, took up her post last May and serves in an independent and unpaid capacity, as do all Special Rapporteurs.
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