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KIRIBATI / GLOBAL WARMING
STORY: KIRIBATI / GLOBAL WARMING
TRT: 1:39
SOURCE: IFAD / UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: RECENT / FILE
IFAD - JUNE 2009
1. Various shots, aerial views of Kiribati
2. Various shots, old man building sea wall
FILE - UNTV – SEPTEMBER 2008
3. Wide shot, President Anote Tong of Kiribati in General Assembly
4. Med shot, President Tong speaking
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Anote Tong, President of Kiribati:
“Mr. President, on climate change… while the international community continues to point fingers at each other regarding responsibility for and leadership on this issues our people continue to experience the impact.”
6. Cutaway, Kiribati delegation
7. Med shot, President Tong at General Assembly
FILE - IFAD – DECEMBER 2005
8. Various shots, waves lapping into homes
9. Wide shot, waves crashing into bridges
10. Wide shot, streets flooded
IFAD - JUNE 2009
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Anote Tong, President of Kiribati:
“We will be victims regardless of what happens. And we’re just the ones on the frontline now.”
12. Wide shot, IFAD meeting with locals
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Ron Hartman, Country Program Manager, International Fund for Agricultural Development:
“We would like to understand some of the challenges that you face with the environment. Is there changes people have noticed in weather or the sea?”
14. Wide shot, IFAD meeting
15. Med shot, local farming crops
16. SOUNDBITE (English) Anote Tong, President of Kiribati:
“What is the international community going to do about it? If anything this represents the single biggest moral challenge to human kind and if it doesn’t respond to this then there is no credibility to anything.”
17. Med shot, waves meeting sea wall
18. Wide shot, beach at sunset
As the climate talks continue in Copenhagen, low-lying Pacific islands like Kiribati face a real threat of disappearing into the ocean.
Tomorrow, Kiribati’s President, Anote Tong, is expected to make a plea to the international community gathered in Copenhagen, asking countries to reach a global pact to limit carbon emissions and help his country mitigate and adapt to the current threats of climate change.
In September 2008 at the UN’s General Debate, the President urged the international community to stop pointing fingers at each other without taking any responsibility for the climate change while his people “continue to experience the impact.”
SOUNDBITE (English) Anote Tong, President of Kiribati:
“Mr. President, on climate change… while the international community continues to point fingers at each other regarding responsibility for and leadership on this issues our people continue to experience the impact.”
According to IFAD, small island states like Kiribati, which contribute only 0.6 percent of all global warming pollution, suffer disproportionately from the effects of climate change.
President Tong calls all 108,000 inhabitants of Kiribati, “victims” of climate change, living on the frontlines amidst waves crashing into highways and lapping into homes.
SOUNDBITE (English) Anote Tong, President of Kiribati:
“We will be victims regardless of what happens. And we’re just the ones on the frontline now.”
Today, Kiribati’s submergence under rising sea levels is no longer just a concern but a harsh reality. Scientists predict that Kiribati will disappear under rising sea levels within the next 30-50 years.
Even if carbon emissions are stablized, sea levels are still expected to rise as much as 2 meters by the end of this century shows a recent report by the University of Colorado. This leaves Kiribati’s government no choice but to consider relocating its people to nearby countries like Australia and New Zealand.
Kiribati also faces immediate problems of poverty and shrinking food supplies caused by climate change. Convincing development organizations to invest in a country that will not be around in 50 years is often challenging.
IFAD, through its agricultural research center, develops technology to increase production of staple crops and helps the locals cope with problems of food shortage. Ron Hartman from IFAD often engages the locals in meetings to understand some of the challenges that they face with climate change.
SOUNDBITE (English) Ron Hartman, Country Program Manager, International Fund for Agricultural Development:
“We would like to understand some of the challenges that you face with the environment. Is there changes people have noticed in weather or the sea?”
IFAD’s research centre works with the locals to identify food crop varieties that can tolerate rising temperatures and grow in salty water.
President Tong hopes parts of the island most affected by climate change could benefit from this initiative but understands that these are just temporary measures. He says that climate change represents “the single most moral challenge to human kind.”
SOUNDBITE (English) Anote Tong, President of Kiribati:
“What is the international community going to do about it? If anything this represents the single biggest moral challenge to human kind and if it doesn’t respond to this then there is no credibility to anything.”
Kiribati, one of the last places to be inhabited by humans, is made up of 33 atoll islands stretching across the Pacific Ocean.
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