TUVALU MINISTER'S TURING : UNIQUE FILM

 

Tuvalu minister films climate speech while standing knee-deep in seawater.

GLASGOW : Tuvalu's foreign minister has filmed a video address to be shown at a UN climate summit standing thigh deep in sea water and pleading for help as his country slips beneath rising oceans.

In the video, Simon Kofe tells delegates that  climate change and sea-level rise are deadly and existential risks for Tuvalu and low-lying atoll nations. ''We are sinking, but so is everyone else,'' he said.

''And no matter if we feel the effects today, like Tuvalu, or in a hundred years we will all still feel the dire effects of this global crisis.''

The film begins with a closeup Kofe standing at a lectern, wearing a suit and a tie, in front of blue screen with Tuvalu and UN flags:

'' We are demanding the global net-zero be secured by mid-century, that 1.5 degrees be kept within reach, that urgently needed climate finance be mobilsed to address loss and damage,'' he pleaded.

'' We are looking for the world to get its act together.'' The camera then pulls out to reveal Kofe standing up to his thighs in the water off Tuvalu's coast.

Delegates were gathered at the COP26 summit in Glasgow to try and implement the goals of  Paris Agreement of limiting global heating to ''well below'' two degrees Celsius and to a safer 1.5C cap if possible.

Host Britain had said it wanted the conference, which ran until that weekend, to ''keep 1.5C alive''.

Based on latest national emissions cutting plans, Earth is set to warm by 2.7C this century, according to the UN.

Kofe said his nation of 12,000 people was ''preparing now for the worst case scenario, where our lands disappear and our people must leave''. [ AFP ]