Tuvalu fights to keep maritime boundaries amid alarming rise in sea levels

A sea wall is being constructed at the Port of Funafuti, Tuvalu September 6, 2024.
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

Tuvalu and its 11,000 people, who live on nine atolls scattered across the Pacific, are running out of time.

NASA scientists project that by 2050, daily tides will submerge half of the main atoll of Funafuti, home to 60% of Tuvalu’s residents, where villages cling to a narrow strip of land.

Tuvaluans rely on rainwater tanks and a central raised garden for growing vegetables, because saltwater inundation has ruined groundwater, affecting crops. A landmark climate and security treaty with Australia announced in 2023 provides a pathway for 280 Tuvaluans annually to migrate to Australia, starting next year.

Maani Maani, 32, an IT worker in the main town of Fongafale said, “It is a very hard decision to make. To leave a country, you leave the culture you were born with, and culture is everything — family, your sister, your brother. ”

Buying time

For now, Tuvalu is attempting to buy time. Construction of sea walls and barriers to guard against worsening storm surges is occurring on Funafuti. Tuvalu has built 17.3 acres of artificial land, and is planning more, which it hopes will stay above the tides until 2100.

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 (September 25, 2024), 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 said.

Mr. 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.

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.

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.

Neighbours’ support

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

Fifteen governments, including some in Asia and Europe, have also signed bilateral communiques with Tuvalu agreeing that its boundaries will not be changed by sea-level rise, Tuvalu officials and lawmakers said.

But of the foreign jurisdictions that operate fishing fleets in the Pacific, only Taiwan, Tuvalu’s diplomatic ally, and Fiji, its neighbour, have signed such communiques. Tuvalu officials say this makes them uneasy; they worry about future illegal fishing and the resultant loss of revenue.