Climate crisis: Villagers forced to abandon their homes as sea levels rise
When Semisi Paulo hears the words, veisau ni draki climate change, the first thing that comes to mind is his village (koro) in Fiji going under water. Paulo, his parents and three siblings are from Vunidogoloa Village in Fijis northern coast the countrys first climate change village. This place is all I know, it's all we know, the 11-year-old said. My father and his elders were born here. Weve never been anywhere else. All of that changed for the family (matavuvale) in early 2014 when rising sea levels forced the entire village to relocate. Two years earlier, Vunidogoloa was destroyed when Cyclone Evan a category four storm battered the Pacific nation. READ MORE: * COP26: Sinking Tuvalu prompts the question, are you still a country if you're underwater? * Climate change: $1.3b aid commitment slammed by National, lauded by Oxfam * Fleeing or living - questions from the frontline of climate change * New Zealand must listen to Pacific voice on the climate crisis * Pacific Islanders adapt to climate change rather than become 'refugees' But they have been resilient, village headman (turaga ni koro) Simione Botu said. His people have been moved not once (dua) but twice (rua) to escape worsening floods along the coastline. First it was 2 kilometres upstream and then, later, 15km inland. Botu, 60, said no matter what they did, the water came through the village. There were repeated attempts to hold back the sea and the estuary running through the village with makeshift walls. Rotted foundations remained of our homes, washed away by the Pacific Ocean. Our heart is here. Our forefathers are here. This is all we know, the ways of our ancestors. We use the stars and the moon to navigate our way across the seas. Now we can't because we have been forced to move. Our way of life has changed dramatically. Now we have to adapt to a new place. Botu is concerned about not being able to teach the children their traditional ways (na i tovo vakaviti) and he fears many young people will miss out on the opportunity to do what their ancestors have done for centuries. Like Botus forefathers, other people of the Pacific, including Maori, have for centuries used the stars to calculate the season and time. Navigators steered their canoes towards a star on the horizon to get them from one place to another. In June, iwi across Aotearoa will turn to the stars to herald the Maori new year Matariki and for the first time New Zealand will mark the occasion with a public holiday. Yet the growing recognition comes as some descendents of those original navigators are being forced to move by a changing climate. Since 2014, a total of 150 villages along Fiji's coastline have been identified by the government for relocation to higher ground 44 of them have been moved. Climate Minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum said the government had spent almost F$1 million to relocate Vunidogoloa, including building homes, fish ponds and a processing plant for coconut oil. We need to actively participate in climate science, the research, the innovation, the legal issues and an inquiry that will help define solutions that suit our context and indeed our needs. The plight of Fijis villages and other Pacific settlements has gained international attention, but questions remain over whether it is enough. Covid-19, climate change and conflict have left the Pacific at a crossroads, the United Nations said. In its latest update on the region, the UN said the Pacific has made tremendous progress in the past 75 years. But now it faced a series of overlapping and cascading challenges. We need crisis-prepared policies to protect our most vulnerable populations and get back on track to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, said Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana, the UNs under secretary-general. New Zealands government says it is committed to prioritising the Pacifics resilience due to threats such as climate change and potentially catastrophic levels of Chinese debt. Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta said the Government was shifting its $700 million Pacific Reset policy to focus on partnering with Pacific nations on resilience projects. This isn't about money. This is about ways of working. It is about using the current pathways of negotiating for development assistance to take a partnership approach, said Mahuta. The 2015 Paris Agreement challenges countries to volunteer to progressively increase their ambition. The United States, China, European Union, New Zealand and Japan have done this through improved nationally determined contributions (NDCs) to the UN deal. Pacific leaders have also been calling for direct climate finance from Australia rather than for them to rejoin the Green Climate Fund, which distributes funds across the worlds developing countries. In 2020, Australia reportedly became the biggest exporter of the worlds dirtiest fuel, coal. Neither the Liberal-National coalition nor Labor planned to end that record and in last months elections, Australians voted in favour of a new government. With its per capita emissions over twice as high as the EUs, Australia could afford to fund climate action in developing countries. And its links to some of the worlds most climate-vulnerable nations, such as the Pacific islands, could be a huge force for good in the region. But first, Labor leader Anthony Albanese and his new government would need to mend Australias international reputation on climate change which is in tatters, particularly in the Pacific. Vanuatu is one of the countries most affected by the climate crisis, with risks such as sea level and temperature rises including cyclones, storm surges, landslides, flooding and droughts. In a speech to the UN General Assembly in November, Vanuatu Prime Minister Bob Loughman said: The dire consequences of climate change can no longer be ignored, and the science linking climate change to past and present emissions of greenhouse gases is now beyond question. Climate change is driving sea level rise, desertification, disease redistribution, floods, unprecedented heat domes, cyclones, hurricanes, and other extreme weather events. Vanuatus push for the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to protect vulnerable nations from climate change has received the support of 1500 civil society organisations from more than 130 countries. Vanuatu heads towards a crucial vote at the UN General Assembly later this year. In 2021, Vanuatu announced it would seek an advisory opinion by the court on the rights of present and future generations to be protected from climate change. If it succeeds, experts said the ICJs opinion could help shape international law on the matter. It could also influence domestic and regional courts and tribunals when addressing issues relating to climate change. For many Pacific Islanders, climate change is already an existential threat, former Kiribati president and environmental activist Anote Tong said. Over 119,000 people on the island are at risk of losing their homes as rising sea levels slowly inundate the islands, Tong warned. Scientists believe the island nation could become uninhabitable by 2050. The World Bank recently approved the Kiribati Outer Islands Resilience and Adaptation Project to work with 20 island councils across the island as well as the three urban councils on Tarawa. Remote communities an estimated 14,000 people and equivalent to 12% of the population would receive much-needed support for climate resilience as part of the banks US$20m project. The measures include improving access to freshwater, drainage improvements, coastal protection, upgrades to public buildings and critical facilities, as well as maintenance equipment and climate-resilient solutions for flooding, the World Bank said in a statement. Growing tensions in the Pacific between the US, China and Australia, with the most recent about a Solomon Islands security deal with Beijing, have not addressed the most significant security threat to the region, climate change, former Pacific leaders have warned. In a statement, the Pacific Elders Voice group which includes the Marshall Islands, Palau, Kiribati and Tuvalu, and Dame Meg Taylor, the former secretary-general of the Pacific Islands Forum secretariat, said: The primary security threat to the Pacific is climate change, rather than geo-strategic tensions. We are suffering from many insecurities in our region. It is time that the international community focus on these insecurities, particularly in the context of climate change. We call on all nations to respect the sovereignty of all Pacific Island countries and the right of Pacific peoples to develop and implement their own security strategies without undue coercion from outsiders. Tuvalu fears climate change is being forgotten and worries that the Pacific could become "pawns" in a global competition between Beijing and Washington. Tuvalu Foreign Minister Simon Kofe said hes concerned the superpower competition was distracting attention from the climate crisis in the Pacific. In Fiji, where an entire community was relocated 15km inland on to a hillside, the new Vunitogoloa Village now has 33 wooden houses. The families are learning to adapt to their new environment, said chief Botu. "It hasn't been easy, but we have no other choice. It is what it is. For Paulo who was 4 years old when his village first moved - and the hundreds of other children (na gone), they are only part of a disappearing small group of people (tamata) who have been forced to move from their homes (i vale) because of coastal flooding. But their journey of displacement could be a tale of stubborn resilience with hope and happiness in their new homes atop the hillside, built by the villagers themselves and their government.