Pacific island nations work to secure their futures before rising sea levels swallow them

A nation is more than just land. It is its people, its nature, its culture, its traditions, its history and its ability to govern itself as a nation. But can a nation continue to exist without sovereign territory to stand on?

This is a once-unthinkable problem that some Pacific island nations are now having to deal with. Entire Pacific nations will soon become uninhabitable due to the catastrophes of climate change. Some countries are destined to be completely submerged by the end of the century. Even if the world manages to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius, atoll nations such as Tuvalu or Kiribati face Some degree of flooding.

Pacific island nations are on the front line despite their contribution to the climate crisis Less than 0.03% Representing 10% of the world’s carbon emissions, they are taking desperate measures to safeguard their survival in order to avoid catastrophic conditions brought on by climate change.

A country without territory

On November 15, a few days after the opening of COP27, Tuvalu Foreign Minister Simon Kofi Speak to the world Standing behind a wooden podium, he announced that the tiny Pacific island nation would become the world’s first digital nation.

“Since COP26, the world has not acted,” he said, with the UN and Tuvalu flags fluttering in the breeze behind him. “We have to take our own precautions… Our land, our oceans, our culture are the most precious assets of our people. To protect them from harm, we will move them to the cloud, no matter what happens in the real world.”

The country is located between Hawaii and Australia and consists of nine islands with a population of about 12,000 people. As a low-lying atoll nation, it is particularly vulnerable to the effects of rising sea levels, such as erosion of coastlines, contamination of freshwater resources and destruction of food crops. The country is destined to become uninhabitable in the next decade. 20 to 30 yearsTo preserve what’s left, it will become the first nation to replicate itself in the Metaverse.

The decision was made by Tuvalu Future Now ProjectThis is a preparedness plan for the worst that climate change could bring. Creating a digital twin of the land is a form of conservation, a way to digitally replicate their territory and preserve their culture. The virtual space will allow Tuvaluans to interact with their land and its natural beauty, while also communicating with each other using their own language and customs.

Tuvalu also plans to move its administrative and governance systems online. But can it exercise sovereignty over virtual land? For Queensland University of Technology professors Nick Kelly and Marcus Foss, the answer is yes and no.

exist an article “Combining these technological capabilities with governance features to create a ‘digital twin’ of Tuvalu is feasible,” Kelly and Foth write in The Conversation. One promising example is Estonia’s e-residency system, a digital form of residency that gives non-Estonians access to services such as company registration. Virtual EmbassyJust like what Sweden has built on the digital platform Second Life.

But getting the entire population of a country, even a small one like Tuvalu, to interact online in real time is a technical challenge. “There are issues of bandwidth, computing power, and the fact that many users don’t like headphones,” Kelly and Foss argue. Moreover, technologies that combat climate change “tend to exacerbate the problem because they are energy- and resource-intensive.”

The professors said a digital replica of Tuvalu would likely resemble an online museum and a digital community, but was unlikely to become an “artificial nation-state”.

Relocation, the last resort

Lavetanalagi Seru, Policy Coordinator of the Pacific Islands Climate Action Network saidSelection), Tuvalu is exploring its options. The 30-year-old Fijian said there were still many challenges to consider. For example, there was the question of Tuvalu’s exclusive economic zone, the area where it had jurisdiction over resources. “What happens then?” he asked. “The UN convention is very clear about how to measure that. It needs to be defined starting from a landmass.”

The prospect of Tuvalu’s future is “heartbreaking” for Seru, who sees the fate of the small island nation mirroring that of his native Fiji. Although atoll nations such as Tuvalu are more vulnerable to climate disasters than higher-elevation Pacific nations such as Fiji, they face similar challenges. “Nothing can describe the pain, trauma and homelessness (Pacific Islanders will endure), the feeling of being separated from your roots,” Seru said.

and 65% People living within 5 kilometres of Fiji’s coastline are at risk from rising sea levels.

For the past four years, a special unit of the Fijian government has been studying how to boost the country’s development. It has drawn up a 130-page plan The plan, called the Standard Operating Procedure for Planned Relocation, will soon be submitted to the Cabinet for approval. It lays out how communities that are about to be inundated will be relocated. So far, six villages have been relocated, with another 42 scheduled to be relocated in the next five to ten years.

“Relocating communities is our last resort,” says Theroux. “It is not something we should have done in the first place. We should not have cut our communities off from their ancestral lands.” Relocating communities with dignity is never easy. In addition to houses, churches, schools, roads, health centers and basic infrastructure, relocating communities also means transporting cemeteries, etc.

It is also important to take into account every custom and need of the community. Moving a fishing community inland and asking them to farm on land can be challenging, as can moving elderly people to a mountaintop that is difficult to access.

Seru grew up in a small town called Nausori, spending three years of his childhood with relatives in the close-knit coastal community. Although he witnessed the consequences of climate change while growing up, he didn’t make the connection at the time. “We just thought it was a natural phenomenon,” he recalls. It wasn’t until he went to college that he began to put the pieces together.

Then, in 2016, Hurricane Winston Sweeping And caused a loss of one-third of Fiji’s GDP.

“The wind blew the roof off our house like a piece of paper,” Seru explained. “Our root crops were destroyed, so our family had to rely on food from the supermarket. It costs money to buy these things.” The hurricane destroyed so much that to this day, some families are still unable to rebuild their homes. “They just want to feed their families, they don’t think about finding a job to live a better life,” Seru said.

‘The root of our problems’

Theroux’s voice sharpened when asked what the international community could be doing better. His homeland, like many Pacific islands, is on the front lines of the climate crisis despite contributing only a small amount to global greenhouse gas emissions.

“The developed countries, the countries that use coal and produce fossil fuels, must stop the further expansion of the fossil fuel industry,” he said. “This is the root of our problem.” Yet, despite pleas from the scientific community, NGOs and climate activists like Seru for countries to abandon fossil fuels, multinationals such as Total Energy and Shell are planning to open up New gas and oil production sites.

In addition, funding is needed urgently. Theroux explained that although vulnerable countries in the Pacific have plans to mitigate and adapt to climate-induced events, they do not have the funds to implement them. “If you look at the series of disasters we face every year… after one disaster, people are still recovering, and then another disaster comes. Where are we going to get the money (to rebuild)?”

For Fiji’s young people, providing funding is the responsibility of the state which “benefits from our resources”.

COP27 summit concludes with landmark climate outcomes Loss and Damage Fundfor developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to climate change. The money will cover the costs of damage these countries cannot avoid or adapt to. Nearly 200 countries, including the European Union and the United States, have agreed to donate.

By 2050, 216 million Climate change could displace people. Migration and resettlement were not discussed at COP27 Draft Agreement.