Australia has agreed to offer residency to people displaced by climate change from the Pacific islands of Tuvalu in a new treaty announced Friday.
“Tuvalu faces special and unique challenges which are already exacerbated by the effects of climate change. It is geographically remote, has a fragmented landmass, and a scarcity of natural resources,” Australia’s prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said in a statement Friday.
The treaty is called the Falepili Union, based on the Tuvaluan word for the traditional values of good neighbourliness, care and mutual respect, and will allow a “special pathway” for up to 280 Tuvuluans a year to go to Australia.
With a population of 11,000, it would take up to 40 years for the entire population of Tuvalu to move to Australia under those parameters.
“We believe the people of Tuvalu deserve the choice to live, study and work elsewhere, as climate change impacts worsen,” Albanese said, adding that the treaty is groundbreaking.
“Australia has committed to provide a special pathway for citizens of Tuvalu to come to Australia, with access to Australian services that will enable human mobility with dignity.”
The statement said that climate change remains the greatest threat to Tuvalu’s security and well-being, and the treaty came at the request of Tuvalu.
“I wish to express my heartfelt appreciation for the unwavering commitment that our friends from Australia have demonstrated,” Tuvalu Prime Minister Kausea Natano said. “This partnership stands as a beacon of hope, signifying not just a milestone but a giant leap forward in our joint mission to ensure regional stability, sustainability and prosperity.”
Tuvalu is especially vulnerable to climate change as it is low-lying, with the NASA Sea Level Change Team predicting that the islands will be below the level of the current high tide by 2050, and will experience more than 100 days of flooding every year by 2100.
The sea level at Tuvalu is nearly six inches higher than it was 30 years ago, according to NASA’s report released in August, and is rising about 0.2 inches every year, a number expected to double by 2100.
“We can already see from the data that small-scale ocean variability, storms, high tides and sea level rise are all combining to cause flooding in Tuvalu,” Ben Hamlington, who leads the NASA team, said in a statement in August.
The question of climate change displacement and the potential for climate change refugees has been growing over recent years, and Tuvalu has been vocal about raising the alarm.
According to a UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) report, 21.5 million people on average are being displaced each year due to extreme climate events. By 2050, the world could have 1.2 billion climate refugees.
Experts believe that the worst effects of climate change are yet to come.
Entire nations, such as the Maldives, are projected to vanish under rising sea levels by the turn of the century. By 2050, large swathes of major coastal cities around the world such as Shanghai, Mumbai, Ho Chi Minh City, Alexandria and Bangkok may be lost to the sea.
— with files from Global’s Uday Rana and The Associated Press.
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