Climate summit told of nation’s ‘fight to death’

The president of an island nation on the frontline of climate change says it is in a “fight to the death” after freak waves inundated the capital.

Powerful swells averaging 5m (16ft) washed across the capital of the Marshall Islands, Majuro, last week.

But President Hilda Heine said the Pacific nation had been fighting rising tides even before last week’s disaster.

Political leaders and climate diplomats are meeting in Madrid for two weeks of talks amid a growing sense of crisis.

This conference of the parties, or COP25, was due to be held in Chile but was cancelled by the government due to weeks of civil disturbances.

Spain then stepped in to host the event, which will see 29,000 attendees over the two weeks of talks.

The world’s average surface temperature is rising rapidly because human activities release greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2). These gases trap heat in the atmosphere, a bit like the glass roof of a greenhouse.

At the meeting, Ms Heine commented: “Water covers much of our land at one or other point of the year as we fight rising tides. As we speak hundreds of people have evacuated their homes after large waves caused the ocean to inundate parts of our capital in Majuro last week.”

She added: “It’s a fight to the death for anyone not prepared to flee. As a nation we refuse to flee. But we also refuse to die.”

Ms Heine is not alone in the view that small nations like the Marshall Islands face an imminent existential threat. At the Madrid summit, ambassador Lois Young, from the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), which represents low-lying coastal countries and small island nations, launched a rebuke to the world’s big polluters.

“We are disappointed by inadequate action by developed countries and outraged by the dithering and retreat of one of the most culpable polluters from the Paris Agreement,” she said.

“In the midst of a climate emergency, retreat and inaction are tantamount to sanctioning ecocide. They reflect profound failure to honour collective global commitment to protect the most vulnerable.

“With our very existence at stake, COP 25 must demonstrate unprecedented ambition to avert ecocide.” -BBC