Latest news with #Tuvalu
RNZ News
3 days ago
- Politics
- RNZ News
These Pacific Islands are building walls to stop rising seas. Will it work?
By Doug Dingwall and Adel Fruean , ABC News A seawall under construction at Ebeye in Marshall Islands. Photo: Supplied: Hall Contracting The sea used to wreak havoc as it crashed into Simeona Tapeneko's village in Samoa. Water would flood the houses in Lauli'i, on the north coast of the country's most populated island, overwhelming an old seawall built offshore. "Many things - including our homes - were severely damaged," Tapeneko said. "The waves also destroyed the graves of deceased family members." When builders laid the last rock of a new seawall there in May, ending six months of construction, Lauli'i breathed a collective sigh of relief. Tapeneko said the $1.9 million wall, funded by the New Zealand government, would protect the homes from storm surges. "Families are happy and feel secure with its height," he said. Simeona Tapeneko has seen rising sea levels damage his village. Photo: ABC News / Adel Fruean It's one of many Pacific Island communities building seawalls to defend themselves against rising sea levels. One of Marshall Islands' most populated islands, Ebeye, is buttressing its coast with a wall of rock shipped from Dubai and funded by the World Bank and Green Climate Fund. New seawalls also protect low-lying atolls in Tuvalu, and more will appear in Kiribati, Tonga, Solomon Islands, Fiji and other island nations, many with funding from the Australian government and international development organisations. They're a source of hope for countries grappling with sea level rise - which scientists say will continue even if the world limits global temperature rises to 1.5C above pre-industrial times. Coastal engineers say places like the Netherlands have long used engineering to hold back the sea from low-lying lands - and that the Pacific could do the same. But researchers in climate change adaptation say seawalls are usually a costly, short-term fix in a region with limited money. "A seawall along an eroding coastline is really only a stopgap measure, because we know that [sea level rise] is projected to continue well beyond the end of this century, perhaps by about another 200 or 300 years," Patrick Nunn, a University of Sunshine Coast climate scientist, said. Lauli'i residents feel safer now the village has a new seawall. Photo: ABC News / Adel Fruean Not far from the shores of Lauli'i, its old seawall sits mostly submerged in water. Leota Vaimauga, a village chief, estimates it lasted for 10-15 years before it was overwhelmed by the sea. And while he's relieved the village has a new seawall, he expects Lauli'i will need to replace it in another decade, depending on the weather and the stability of the new barrier. Climate adaptation researchers say seawalls have a clear downside that makes them hard to sustain in rural areas. "You have to keep elevating them, have to keep extending them, and so they're very economically costly," Jon Barnett, a climate adaptation researcher at the University of Melbourne, said. "They're an all-or-nothing strategy that really needs to be considered well in advance and thought through." Most seawalls in rural coastal areas are funded and built by local communities, and have been too expensive to maintain, researchers say. Professor Nunn calculates that on average, the structures will collapse after 18 to 24 months. Photo: Supplied / Hall Contracting A study he co-authored in 2021 describes the Pacific's rural coastlines as "littered with the remains of collapsed seawalls". Climate adaptation researchers also say seawalls have side effects, like diverting erosion to other parts of the coast, forcing waves to scour the seafloor at their seaward side, and pooling water on their landward side. Professor Nunn said rural villages in the Pacific's higher volcanic islands could better use the labour and resources spent on seawalls on a longer-term solution - relocating further inland and upslope. But he said seawalls can offer important psychological benefits for communities losing land to rising seas. They also provide time for them to consider whether to relocate, researchers and coastal engineers say. It's something Queensland University of Technology climate change adaptation researcher, Annah Piggott-McKellar, observed in one Fiji village that relocated after building a series of seawalls. "Land is… a way of life. It's a part of who people are," she said. "So trying everything that's possible before making that decision to move is important." But Dr Piggott-McKellar said there was also a risk that seawalls give false hope. "Having that realistic conversation and understanding of what a seawall might be there to do is going to be important." Leota Vaimauga says Lauli'i's old seawall no longer protects the village. Photo: ABC News / Adel Fruean For the Pacific's low-lying atolls, new seawalls come with fanfare. In Marshall Islands, 65,000 tonnes of rock shipped from the United Arab Emirates will form a new 1.81 kilometre barrier on the seaward side of Ebeye island. Hall Contracting, which is building the multi-million-dollar seawall, said it was due to be completed by December. "The houses in Ebeye are built right up against the ocean … in large storm events those houses can be affected," company chief executive and director Cameron Hall said. "This seawall will protect them." Hall said seawalls have an important role to play for Pacific Island nations as sea levels rise. "Civil engineering is a powerful thing. In my opinion, there's no reason why [it] should be confined to developed countries," he said. "It's a problem that developed nations have created … and if there's an engineering solution, why wouldn't we do it for them?" The work is logistically challenging, requiring builders to move machinery to remote atolls, and source material for the seawalls. In Tuvalu, Hall Contracting dredged sand from the lagoon by the capital Funafuti to build seven hectares of new or "reclaimed" land protected by a seawall of sandbags. It also constructed a seawall of interlinked hexagonal concrete blocks along part of the coast at Nanumea, another Tuvalu atoll. It's all part of Tuvalu's coastal adaptation project, funded by the Tuvaluan and Australian governments and the Green Climate Fund, aiming to keep the nation inhabitable. But a group of Nanumeans is championing a proposal to save their home for the longer-term. Local engineer Truman Lomi has worked on a concept for the Nanumea Salvation Seawall Project for years. It involves building a barrier around the entire island - rather than just a section. He said the barrier would protect the entire coast from large, powerful waves. For now, it requires funding for a feasibility study. The Ebeye seawall will protect the island using rocks from a large quarry in the UAE. Photo: Supplied: Hall Contracting His granddaughter Ashleigh Chatelier, a member of the Nanumea Salvation Seawall group, said the project also carried a message about Tuvalu's ability to adapt to climate change. "We're not helpless. We are resilient, we have the skill set, we have the tools," she said. "Unfortunately, we are restricted in terms of the funding of this project, but the reality is that this is a community-led resilience project and it essentially has come from the roots of Nanumea." Countries have long used engineering to protect, or reclaim, land from the sea. In the Netherlands, dams and dykes keep vast, low-lying areas from flooding. The Maldives, in the Indian Ocean, has reclaimed land from rising seas, although at huge financial and environmental costs. "An engineering solution is possible," Francois Flocard, coastal engineer at the University of New South Wales' Water Research Laboratory, said. "It's [about] understanding, as a community and as a society, where does it make sense to be applied?" Professor Barnett says there are other options for communities where seawalls are too costly to build and maintain. One is to try restoring and conserving ecosystems in a way that lets islands respond naturally to sea level rise. "That doesn't mean they're going to be easy to live on," he said. "Shorelines are going to change, the topography of islands is going to change. Some bits are going to erode, some bits are going to grow. "But the adaptation options there are probably much cheaper." Reclaimed land at Tuvalu's capital, Funafuti. Photo: Supplied: Hall Contracting The massive Afsluitdijk is more than 32 kilometres long and has protected the Netherlands for 90 years. Photo: SANDER KONING / KONING PHOTOGRAP / AFP Some Pacific Island nations are also creating nature-based barriers, using mangroves, sloping rock walls and vetiver grass to block rising seas. In some ways, Professor Barnett said, all action is good action compared to the paralysis on climate change adaptation in some countries. Leaders in countries like Tuvalu are being told there is only decades until their nations are uninhabitable, he said. "There's no rule book. No country's ever had to face this problem before. Now, what do you do?" Professor Barnett said. "You've got to protect the capital. You have to have an airport. You have to have a hospital. You have to have schools. "It seems perfectly reasonable to engage in the kinds of urban defensive strategies." -ABC
Reuters
6 days ago
- Business
- Reuters
Australia's bet on natural gas endangers its climate credentials, experts say
SYDNEY, May 30 (Reuters) - Australia's approval of a 40-year extension for a huge gas project has overshadowed its bid to host a United Nations climate summit next year and tarnishes its green credentials, experts and two Pacific climate ministers said. This week's decision by the centre-left government, which took power in 2022 with a mandate for climate reform, clears Woodside Energy's North West Shelf project to run until 2070, subject to a final review. The step was hailed by the company and the energy industry, which see continued operation of liquefied natural gas (LNG) plants as a cleaner alternative to fuels such as coal. But it was criticised by climate ministers from Tuvalu and Vanuatu, who say the project's emissions could put at risk their nations' very existence, as well as by climate scientists worried about Australia's role in global emissions. "It's just a staggering number of extra emissions," said Malte Meinshausen, a climate scientist at the University of Melbourne. Woodside estimates the extension will pump out a further 4.3 billion tons of carbon emissions over the plant's lifetime. That is equivalent to 200 years of combined emissions from 14 Pacific island nations, says the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, backed by 11 Pacific island nations and territories. "This goes beyond politics," said Tuvalu's Climate Minister Maina Talia. "It is about the moral clarity to stand with those most affected by climate change." The comment signals possible fallout for Canberra from Pacific island neighbours, such as Tuvalu and Vanuatu, in its bid to co-host the United Nations' COP31 climate summit next year with the region. Australia projects it will cut emissions to 42.7% below 2005 levels by 2030, on the path to a globally agreed target of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Gas from the North West Shelf is primarily destined for export markets, meaning that most emissions will not count towards Australia's domestic net zero target. But Meinshausen, a contributor to past reports by the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), said Australia could not ignore its role in supplying fossil fuels causing global warming. "It's like the drug dealer's excuse saying, 'Well, we sell this stuff, but somebody else burns it,'" he said. "That doesn't work anymore in a world where you want to have a responsibility for your actions and being part of the international solution to climate change." In a statement, Australian Environment Minister Murray Watt, who unveiled the extension on Wednesday, said he would not comment further until the review process, opens new tab was complete. Australia sees gas as a transitional fuel on its path to full use of renewable sources of energy. "I think the penny is starting to drop with many around the importance of gas," Woodside Chief Executive Meg O'Neill told reporters after the decision. Extending the project has been a politically sensitive issue for the incumbent Labor Party, which was seen as hostile to gas when it took power but has since warmed to the industry. The decision was delayed until after a state election in Western Australia and a federal poll won decisively by Labor, which took seats from the environmentalist Greens, who had strongly opposed extension of the project. A regional diplomatic bloc of 18 countries, the Pacific Islands Forum, is backing Australia's bid to co-host the U.N.'s Conference of the Parties COP31 climate summit next year, with a decision seen imminent, despite some critical views. Before the project decision, Talia had called for Australia to block the extension if it wanted to co-host COP31 with the Pacific. After the decision, Vanuatu Climate Change Minister Ralph Regenvanu called the extension "a slap in the face" for Pacific island nations, while speaking to Australian state broadcaster ABC.
Reuters
7 days ago
- Politics
- Reuters
Pacific Islanders are fighting to protect the ocean. Now the world must, too
May 28 - The ocean is our lifeblood. It is our provider, the foundation of our cultures, and our home. But it is changing before our eyes. Growing up in Samoa, an island nation ringed by a vast blue horizon, it became clear to me early on that my life, and the life of my community – our stories and culture – were inextricably linked to the ocean. Our lives are woven into the ocean, and when it suffers, we suffer too. The latest UNESCO State of the Oceans report confirms what Pacific Islanders have known for years: the rate of ocean warming has doubled in just 20 years. Villages are disappearing as rising seas creep further inland and saltwater intrusion destroys our crops and drinking water sources. More frequent and intense cyclones are displacing families and wiping out infrastructure. Entire nations, such as Tuvalu and Kiribati, face the terrifying prospect of becoming uninhabitable within a generation. And yet, Pacific Islanders' calls for urgent action to restore our greatest climate ally, the ocean, continue to be met with half-measures and empty promises. The upcoming United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC) is a major moment for leaders to change course. We need leaders to deliver on their commitment to protect at least 30% of the ocean by 2030 (30x30), which means doing so with urgency and accountability. If we don't act now, these impacts will spread far beyond the Pacific, threatening coastal communities around the world. The question is: will they? When I began my climate work in Samoa, I thought we were alone on this journey. But I quickly uncovered the opposite: people in the Pacific are not only enduring the impacts of the climate crisis – we are leading the response. Travelling across the Pacific Islands, documenting the lives of communities, I discovered people and projects weaving Indigenous knowledge into the modern day to adapt and rebuild. From Tuvalu to Palau, from Fiji to the Cook Islands, we are planting, restoring and protecting. We are fighting to save what we love. Take Tuvalu, for instance. Despite being labelled a 'sinking island', Tuvaluans are not surrendering. Local youth groups are planting mangroves as natural barriers against rising tides. These tangled roots do more than hold the soil, they hold hope. They buffer coastlines from storm surges and nurture fish nurseries, restoring marine life the way our ancestors once did, long before scientists confirmed the value of such ecosystems. In Fiji, communities on Leleuvia Island are taking a different approach. There, I visited a coral nursery where marine scientists and locals work side by side to cultivate heat-resistant coral species, such as the 'Pink Lady'. These corals are surviving where others bleach and die. Once mature, they're replanted onto damaged reefs, bringing colour and life back to once-ghostly underwater landscapes. These gardens of resilience show exactly what climate adaptation can look like. Palau, too, is showing the world what's possible. This small island nation has protected 80% of its offshore waters, creating the world's first national shark sanctuary and banning destructive fishing across an area larger than France. There, conservation is more than just policy: it's personal. Visitors must pledge to 'tread lightly', guided by the words of Palauan children. And it works. The reefs here teem with life. The people here understand: protecting the ocean is about protecting your future. And in the Cook Islands, the Marae Moana ocean governance framework draws on both Indigenous wisdom and modern science to protect their vast waters for generations to come. Their approach to managing fisheries, seabed mining and even plastic pollution is rooted in community voices, intergenerational stewardship and balance. It's not just about drawing lines on a map. It's about ensuring that the ocean continues to provide, as it always has. These are not just inspiring anecdotes. They show that 30x30 is not a fantasy – it's happening. But we need more of it, faster and at scale. Today, globally only 8% of the ocean is designated as protected and not even 3% of the ocean is deemed to be effectively protected, leaving almost all of the ocean vulnerable to harmful industrial activites such as seafloor trawling and offshore drilling. The crisis unfolding in the Pacific is a warning for the world. If global leaders fail to take action, coastal cities from Miami to Manila will also face rising waters and increasing extreme marine storms. Ocean acidification will strip marine ecosystems of life, collapsing fisheries that millions depend on for food and livelihoods. At the U.N. Ocean Conference in June, I am joining with the Together for the Ocean campaign, calling on governments to scale ambition, create and enforce marine protected areas, and ensure finance flows towards ocean conservation with direct access for Indigenous Peoples and local communities. As a priority, leaders need to step up to protect our shared ocean: the high seas. Until 60 countries ratify the High Seas Treaty, it won't become international law. Twenty-one nations have stepped forward already, but more must follow. No more excuses, no more delays. The solutions exist. The knowledge exists. The urgency could not be greater. Governments must be held accountable to their pledges.
CNN
7 days ago
- Business
- CNN
Ancient rock art under threat as Australia gives ‘proposed' approval to gas plant extension
Etched onto rocks on a remote peninsula in Western Australia are millions of images drawn tens of thousands of years ago by the country's original inhabitants, including the earliest known depictions of the human face. This open-air display of some of humanity's oldest works is being slowly erased by industrial pollution from a nearby gas plant, according to scientific studies that have been swept up in an almighty clash of competing ambitions for the region's future. At the center of the dispute is whether oil and gas company Woodside should be allowed to operate its Karratha Gas Plant until 2070, and on Wednesday Environment Minister Murray Watt gave 'proposed' approval for the extension, with 'strict conditions' relating to air quality. Woodside has 10 days to respond before Watt makes a final decision, he said in a statement. Environment groups and climate campaigners were quick to condemn the decision, which they say will pave the way for dozens of gas wells off the coast of Western Australia that will generate billions of tons of carbon emissions and make a mockery of the government's promises to act on climate change. Opposition to the extension – known as the North West Shelf – has also emerged from Pacific nations, which are co-bidding with Australia to host the COP31 climate talks in 2026. In a statement issued Tuesday, Tuvalu's Climate Change Minister Maina Talia urged Canberra to reject the proposal. 'Pacific leaders have made it clear: there is no future for our nations if fossil fuel expansion continues,' he said. 'This goes beyond politics; it is about the moral clarity to stand with those most affected by climate change.' The Karratha Gas Plant has kept the town of Karratha in work since it opened in the 1980s, but centuries earlier the region's original inhabitants told stories through images etched into the patina of rocks in Murujuga, the area's Indigenous name. Their depictions of the human face can't be published due to cultural protocol, but experts say the existence of the artwork is of exceptional value to humankind. Local Indigenous custodians Raelene Cooper and Josie Alec have fought for years to preserve their cultural heritage and found an ally in Benjamin Smith, president of the International Scientific Committee for Rock Art, who has framed the final call on the extension as 'perhaps the most important environmental decision of our lifetime.' 'What will be approved here is the biggest carbon bomb in the southern hemisphere and the extension of a plant that is actively damaging the most important rock art site in the southern hemisphere, if not the world,' said Smith, a professor of archaeology at the University of Western Australia. Smith told CNN in 2022 that sulfur and nitrogen oxides emitted from the industrial plants on Murujuga were mixing with moisture in the air to form acid rain that was damaging the rocks – findings later proven in a lab. He's accused the Western Australian government - which supports the gas extension – of trying to bury the results of its own monitoring programs that he says prove that emissions from the gas plant are damaging the rocks. CNN has reached out to the Western Australian government for comment. In response to the government's proposed approval, Cooper, Murujuga's traditional custodian, issued a short statement that began with: 'See you in Court.' Acidic emissions from industrial plants near the Murujuga rock art already appear to have thwarted attempts to gain World Heritage protection for the site, according to advice from an advisory body to the World Heritage Committee. The draft decision released this week advises the application be referred back to the government, so it can 'ensure the total removal of degrading acidic emissions,' along with other requirements. Watt said in a statement the draft decision was disappointing, but his office would work with the World Heritage center to 'ensure the factual inaccuracies that influenced the draft decision are addressed.' Woodside welcomed the proposed approval of the Karratha Gas Plant extension, and said it believed that 'long-term co-existence between cultural heritage and industry is possible.' The company has rejected suggestions that emissions from the Karratha plant are damaging the rock art, and says it will work with the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation (MAC) and state and federal governments to support the World Heritage listing. Climate campaigners fear approval for the North West Shelf extension will pave the way for what they say would be an even bigger environmental disaster – the drilling of Browse, Australia's largest untapped conventional gas reserve off the Western Australian coast. 'The North West Shelf project itself is for processing gas, and the gas has to come from somewhere,' said Joe Rafalowicz, Greenpeace Australia Pacific's climate and energy lead. 'Greenpeace and many other environmental groups have an eye to Woodside's real intentions, which is drilling for gas at Scott Reef.' Scott Reef is a remote ecosystem millions of years old that's home to a diverse array of marine life including endangered dusky sea snakes and migratory pygmy blue whales. The drilled gas would be sent to the Karratha plant for processing via a 900-kilometer (560-mile) pipeline. Western Australia's Environmental Protection Authority rejected Woodside's Browse proposal last year due to unacceptable risks, but the company recently altered its plan and it's once again open for public consultation. 'They've come back with a new proposal, which, on the face of it, seems as though it's a much more reasonable proposal, but when you actually look at the detail … they're still talking about extracting the same gas from underneath Scott Reef,' said Matt Roberts, executive director of the Conservation Council of Western Australia. Campaigners fear drilling will compromise the seabed supporting the reef and Sandy Islet, a breeding ground for vulnerable populations of green turtles. By extending its lifespan, Woodside sees an opportunity to profit from demand for LNG from Asia, as countries seek alternatives to coal-fired power. But the picture is complicated by conflicting forecasts about how much gas customers in Asia will need – and whether the gas will be ordered in high enough volumes and at a price that justifies the huge financial costs of new gas projects. 'Industry forecasts such as those from Shell and Wood Mackenzie often paint a rosy picture for future LNG demand in Asia, partly due to coal-gas switching,' said Josh Runciman, from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), 'However, what we're seeing on the ground is that LNG is unlikely to be competitive with both coal and renewables, and this is largely because LNG is relatively expensive,' he said. The United States remains the world's largest gas exporter, and Woodside recently confirmed a $17.5 billion investment in its Louisiana LNG project, which it's called a 'game changer' for the company. If the Australian government ultimately approves the North West Shelf, Runciman said developing the Browse gas field will pose daunting technical and financial challenges. 'The natural question is, does Woodside have the scope and the capacity to develop two major LNG projects effectively at the same time?' he said. Critics say regardless of the financials, if it goes ahead, the project will come at an extensive cost to millions of people most vulnerable to climate change. And they've made it clear the fight isn't over.
ABC News
28-05-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
Tuvalu Climate Minister slams North West Shelf project extension
Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata'afa is staying tight lipped about whether she'll form a new party to contest the upcoming snap election or run as an independent. The life of Australia's largest oil and gas project will be extended to 2070. It's been met with criticism by Tuvalu's Climate Minister Maina Talia. Timor Leste President Jose Ramos-Horta says a meeting with the survivors of convicted paedophile Richard Daschbach's did not influence his decision not to grant the American a presidential pardon. New South Wales has defeated Queensland in the State of Origin opener 18-6 with a spectacular performance. Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in the United States concludes this week. It recognises the contributions of Asian, American and Pacific individuals have made to American society—in areas like science, government, the arts, business, and civil rights. Cricket PNG is seeking to revitalise the game in Lae, and grow the game in the Highland Provinces, as they seek out the best new talent.
