Sinking Tuvalu fights to keep maritime boundaries as sea levels rise

In this close-knit and deeply Christian society, residents told Reuters they feared relocation would mean the loss of their culture.

“Some will have to go and some will want to stay here,” said Maani Maani, 32, an IT worker in the main town of Fongafale.

“It’s a very hard decision to make,” he added. “To leave a country, you leave the culture you were born with, and culture is everything – family, your sister, your brother. It is everything.”

For now, Tuvalu is attempting to buy time. Construction of sea walls and barriers to guard against worsening storm surges is occurring on Funafuti, which is 400 m at its widest. Tuvalu has built 7 hectares of artificial land, and is planning more, which it hopes will stay above the tides until 2100.

By then, NASA projects a sea-level rise of 1m in Tuvalu, or double that in a worst case, putting 90 per cent of Funafuti under water.

A NATION WITHOUT DRY LAND?

Having secured an exit path for its population, Tuvalu’s diplomats are fighting for legal certainty about what happens when a low-lying island state is swallowed by the sea.

Under Tuvalu’s plan to secure such legal assurance, some residents would stay as long as possible, ensuring a continued presence to help underpin the nation’s enduring sovereignty, according to two Tuvalu officials and the terms of the treaty with Australia.

Dry land is another key requirement for statehood, so Tuvalu wants to change the law of the sea.

On Wednesday, the United Nations General Assembly is scheduled to hold a high-level meeting on sea-level rise, where Prime Minister Feleti Teo will seek support from UN members for Tuvalu’s campaign to have its maritime boundaries and statehood recognised as permanent, Tuvalu officials say.

Teo will speak at the opening plenary, according to Tuvalu’s permanent secretary for foreign affairs, Pasuna Tuaga, along with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

“Tuvalu wishes to champion sea level rise to be treated as a standalone agenda, not crowded under the climate change discourse,” Tuaga told Reuters. “It is an existential threat to Tuvalu’s statehood and survival of its identity.”

The UN’s International Law Commission, which will issue a report on sea-level rise next year, in July flagged its support for a “strong presumption” that statehood would continue where a nation’s land was totally or partially submerged by rising sea levels caused by climate change. 

The commission said some unspecified members had argued against amending the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, preferring other avenues.

Tuvalu’s tuna-rich waters are plied by foreign fishing fleets that pay the country about US$30 million in licence fees annually – its biggest revenue source. Tuvalu also gets at least US$10 million a year from selling its .tv internet domain.

If the international community were to recognise Tuvalu’s maritime boundaries as permanent, it would provide an economic lifeline, Deputy Prime Minister Panapasi Nelesone said in an interview.

Tuvalu has asked its diplomatic partners to sign joint communiques supporting the preservation of its maritime boundaries, though it says many have not formally responded.

“We will continue to talk about that – as long as we live here,” Nelesone said. 

Tuvalu’s neighbours – the 18 members of the Pacific Islands Forum – are on board. They have declared the region’s maritime boundaries are fixed. And the treaty with Australia says “the statehood and sovereignty of Tuvalu will continue”.