Heads Above Water

"Our island is about to be hit by massive sea level rise. How should I advise the people?" he commanded.

The three advisers thought long and hard. Finally one says "Great King, you should lead your people to the highest point on our island and then have a marathon prayer vigil." The second says "Lord and master, I would advise your people to eat, drink, and make merry for it will be our last chance to do so."

The third adviser says, "Your Majesty, if I were you, I would immediately tell your people, to learn how to live under water."

The arrival of the Kyoto Protocol into force has been met with a muted response from the Pacific, which along with much of the international community feels that while the protocol is a positive beginning, more needs to be done. The greatest consequences of global warming are an expected rise in sea level (possibly 50 centimeters by 2050), an increase in natural disasters (storms and cyclones) and disruption to agriculture (drought, floods and changing growing conditions).

Kyoto calls on industrialized nations to cut their 1990 emissions by an average of 5 percent by 2012.

For the Pacific Islands, these initiatives do little to compensate the sense of an injustice not of their making. The facts indicate that although regional gas emissions measure 0.06 per cent of the total world amount; and that Pacific islanders' CO2 emissions are only 25 percent of the average person's around the world, their way of life is being impacted in a manner that is beyond their control.

Solar, wind or wave energy are feasible alternatives in the Pacific's continual battle against climate change and sea level rise. Photo courtesy of SPREP

Environment Under-Secretary for Tuvalu, Paani Laupepa, came out strongly over the United States abandoning the protocol on economic grounds. He told a BBC reporter that "by refusing to ratify the protocol, the U.S. has effectively denied future generations of Tuvaluans its fundamental freedom to live where our ancestors have lived for thousands of years."

The 2001 synthesis report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Tokelau and Tuvalu are among the countries predicted to suffer the greatest impact of climate change - including the disappearance of some islands.

Writing in the Pacific News Monthly Bulletin, Patrina Dumaru, the former assistant environment director of Pacific Concerns Resource Centre, says while attending the Hague negotiations for the protocol, she sensed the region's concerns were something of an afterthought.

"For us in the Pacific a grim reality was realized. The over consumptive lifestyle of the rich world was not negotiable-even if it cost us our land, peoples and culture," she said.

"Of course we can expect adaptation funds from them. After all, it's a cheaper way of dealing with a problem of their making."

Given the level of response to the current situation, adaptation seems to be the region's best response. Energy efficient technologies need to be given more attention within the national energy policies of the island states.

Solar panels and wind turbines are alternative sources that can be applied throughout the region, says renewable energy expert Fifita Solomone.

"These methods would make a difference to our over dependence on imported fuels and the contribution they make to the overall levels of emissions that are aiding sea level rise."

Another possibility is refining the technology needed to turn coconut oil into bio-fuel for vehicles and engines. Trials in Vanuatu have been underway for some time but more testing is being undertaken.

A soon to be published regional report on renewable energies states that in light of sea level rise and economics, "Pacific Island countries must decide whether to make large investments in hydropower or biomass energy if rainfall patterns change or in wind energy if wind patterns change significantly over time."

Climate change experts at the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) say while the protocol is a positive initiative, the developed world needs to bring more than just rhetoric to the table.

"We need to ensure that this will now lead to real and measurable reductions, and encourage dialogue with major emitters. Poorer countries are unlikely to commit to anything unless the richer nations can demonstrate that this is possible," says Andrea Volentras, the Climate Change coordinator.

The United Nations Environment Programme has played an important role in helping bring Kyoto into force and drawing people's attention to the full impacts of climate change. Executive Director Klaus Toepfer is adamant that smaller, economically powerless nations need to be given assistance.

"We must help vulnerable areas of the world, primarily in the developing countries, to adapt to the consequences of global warming. We have a moral responsibility to our fellow men and women to protect them and their families from food shortages to devastating floods," says Toepfer.

Maybe only then will royal advisers on sinking islands be able to suggest other ways of surviving instead learning to live underwater.

The writer is director of the Secretariat for the Pacific Regional Environmental Programme, which is based in Apia, Samoa. See www.sprep.org.ws.