FUNAFUTI, Oct 6 (Reuters) – Representatives of 30 nations watched on Tuesday as white sand dredged from an atoll lagoon was used to reclaim land from the ocean in a fight by the tiny Pacific nation of Tuvalu to keep its main island from being lost to rising waves. A group of coral island clusters with about 10,000 inhabitants whose land is on average just 2 m (7 ft) above sea level, Tuvalu is one of the nations most vulnerable to climate change. “You are standing on frontline soil,” Foreign Minister Paulson Panapa told the leaders gathered ahead of pre-COP, a preparatory conference for the United Nations COP31 climate forum in Turkey in November. “Promises will not hold back rising tides … what this moment requires is decisive delivery. ”
Tuesday’s reclamation effort, spread over six hectares (14 acres), is part of work costing about $50 million of donor funds that also built sea walls and barriers to protect land. “We are sinking,” said Faiva Namoliki, a 39-year-old architect huddled in a sodden jacket in pouring rain outside the event. “Here they see the reality,” he said of the visitors. “We hope they will carry those messages away with them and it will make a difference. ”
Sea levels around Tuvalu have risen about 15 cm (6 inches) in the three decades to 2023, say NASA researchers, or twice as rapid as the global average. “Small amounts of sea level rise make a very big difference in making flood events bigger and more damaging,” Jamie Ovia, the head of Tuvalu’s climate change department, told the leaders.