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Tuvalu Minister Films Speech Thigh-Deep In Ocean To Depict Climate Change

Tuvalu’s foreign minister has given a speech to the United Nations climate conference in Glasgow standing knee-deep in seawater to show how his low-lying Pacific island nation is on the front line of climate change.

Images of Simon Kofe standing in a suit and tie at a lectern set up in the sea, with his trouser legs rolled up, have been shared widely on social media, drawing attention to Tuvalu’s struggle against rising sea levels.

Tuvalu Minister Films Speech Thigh-Deep In Ocean To Depict Climate Change

“The statement juxtaposes the COP26 setting with the real-life situations faced in Tuvalu due to the impacts of climate change and sea level rise and highlights the bold action Tuvalu is taking to address the very pressing issues of human mobility under climate change,” Kofe said of his video message to the conference.

The video was shot by public broadcaster TVBC at the far end of Fongafale, the main islet of the capital Funafuti, a government official said.

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 close-up Kofe standing at a lectern, wearing a suit and tie, in front of a blue screen with Tuvalu and UN flags.

“We are demanding that global net-zero be secured by mid-century, that 1.5 degrees be kept within reach, that urgently needed climate finance be mobilised 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 are 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 says it wants the conference, which runs until the 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”.

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