Hundreds of tropical islands that face being wiped off the map by rising seas and more frequent storms could be helped by a new international insurance fund.
Islanders who lose their homes and livelihoods could receive payments to help them rebuild on higher ground or relocate to other countries.
Britain and other EU member states are considering providing “seed money”, which would subsidise the cost of premiums for islands signing up for the insurance fund. Munich Re is leading a group of insurers working on plans for such a fund.
A group of 43 small island nations is hoping to secure an international agreement in principle to establish the fund at the UN climate conference taking place in Cancun, Mexico.
Islands such as Kiribati, Tuvalu, the Cook and Marshall Islands and the Maldives were facing “the end of history”, said ambassador Antonio Lima from the Cape Verde Islands, spokesman for the Alliance of Small Island States.
He said: “We are the most vulnerable countries in the world but the least polluters. At this moment we are facing the end of history for some of us.
“We are going to be the first human species endangered in the 21st century. We are going to be in danger of going extinct. Imagine someone in the sea with their head just above the surface.”
Mr Lima said the target set in the non-binding Copenhagen Accord of limiting the global temperature increase to 2C would condemn many small islands because this would still result in a significant rise in sea levels from melting polar ice sheets and thermal expansion of the oceans.
AOSIS is demanding that the increase be limited to 1.5C, but most major economies believe this is impossible because it would require immediate and drastic reductions in global emissions. The temperature has already risen by 0.7C and this year is likely to be one of the two hottest on record.
Mr Lima said: “The difference between 1.5 and 2 degrees is to survive or collapse. If you ask us to accept this, it’s for you to ask me to put my country in a desperate situation.”
The insurance fund is being debated as part of a compromise, under which the world’s major economies would acknowledge the increased risk to island nations, but help them secure payouts in the event of disaster.
As a first step, the islands and insurers will work together to assess the value of the assets at risk and produce a report in time for next year’s climate conference in South Africa.
Source : The Australian
