“Sunken graves”… sunken coral islands.. Fiji, Tonga and Samoa in the face of the climate emergency

Fiji in view of. Since they entered World Cup 2023, the Flying Fijians attract the public’s sympathy with their stunning play – nothing new here – and an almost unique ability in rugby to make major nations tumble. If Wells narrowly escapes the guillotine thanks to questionable refereeing, Australia was put on the scaffold He risks elimination for the benefit of strangers to the island.

A glimpse of history: The last team has only managed to get past the group stage once, in 2007, in a group that already included the Welsh and the Australians. Better yet, should they qualify as runners-up, England are likely to face them in recent years, giving a glimpse of the possibility of an unprecedented semi-final. The challenge is sporting, but not only that: it is about putting Fiji and the Pacific Islands on the world map. Soon it may be too late.

Small accuracy and big injustice to climate change, a few million owners Of a proud SUV that vomits carbon dioxide Through its exhaust pipe it has the potential to destroy the lives of a population whose greenhouse gas emissions do not even reach one percent of the global total. If the rich countries are beginning to suffer the consequences of their blindness, then Fiji, Tonga and Samoa, to name a few, the countries participating in the Rugby World Cup, have been gradually submerged for a long time. “Climate change is a crisis these countries did not cause, but it is the struggle they are experiencing the most.” Samoan player Jonny Faamatuainu announced in 2019who at the time urged his Pacific peers to use their status as rugby players to get the message across.

In the interest of decency and in case of another disappointment for Tongans against Scotland on Sunday, let’s avoid the lexical domain of shipwrecks: the most pessimistic scenarios show elevations rising to 126cm by 2100 in this region of the globe, where water levels are rising twice as fast as Less than anywhere else According to various scientific studies. With dire consequences.

Rising ocean levels are eroding some areas, and the sea is eating away coastal villages, attests to Adrian Berlandi, director of the documentary “Me Because We Are,” about the impact of climate change in Fiji. Graves are being swallowed up. This is very tangible. There, my Fijian friends guided me to the beach a few meters from the village, telling me: “My house was there before.” Lives are at stake. Children have died due to rising water levels on their way to school. »

To combat this problem, the population of the Fiji archipelago, which consists mainly of coastal inhabitants, builds dams as best they can, sometimes with great ingenuity, and often with the means at their disposal (tyres, for example). But they only postpone the deadline. Ocean development also leads to salinization of soil and air, poisoning crops, local biodiversity, and even solar panels. Adrien Berlandi: “The trees are falling, the coconut trees are completely exposed, and they are walking on their roots because of the erosion and the sand that is disappearing little by little.” Ultimately, there is no choice but to leave.

Fiji’s president visits Bordeaux to discuss climate

Because local authorities are well aware of this problem, over the past decade they have implemented projects to move villages inland, where the volcanic nature of the archipelago provides a measure of relief. “This is the first issue raised by Fijian officials,” says Céline Babin, deputy mayor of Bordeaux in charge of international relations, who ten days ago received a delegation headed by Fiji’s president, William Catuniver. They have an approach to planning these movements over decades, but they have not mentioned to us the hypothesis of outward relocation of the Fijian population, because it is a sensitive subject, even if in their projections and in light of the growth of their population, this is a question that arises. »

However, the primary desire remains to preserve the island lands from the end of the world. “We have to dismantle the image according to which these people only want to leave and escape the climate,” the director explains. on the contrary. This is their land. The Earth is the place where the ancestors, gods and nature exist. » Among other objectives of the Fijian Head of State’s visit to Gironde, where the Flying Fijians are based, there was also the issue of technical means intended to combat natural disasters. A visit to the Ramses Remote Control Site, a center for real-time flood risk control, Thus he seems to have interested William CatonivièreWho hopes “we will have this kind of system one day.” [aux Fidji] Celine Baban answers: “They also have a lot to offer us, because they have been able to adapt their agricultural production to climate change, and this is a point that interests us.” »

Tuvalu loses two atolls, and Vanuatu depends on The Hague

There is great enthusiasm among Pacific countries for island issues, a concern that has long been ignored by major emitters. In 2022, the island nations called for “urgent and immediate” global action against climate change, hoping the Hague tribunal could put pressure on big polluters. This year, Vanuatu succeeded in passing a historic resolution at the United Nations. The text, endorsed by more than 130 countries, requests the opinion of the International Court of Justice on whether the moral and legal obligations of emitting countries are being respected. Vanuatu had already proposed, in September 2022, the establishment of a “fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty” at the United Nations, arguing that the time is no longer for beautiful words but for actions.

The last part is aid. During COP26 in Glasgow, representatives of the tiny archipelago of Tuvalu, two of the archipelago’s 11 atolls, complained about the lack of funding for infrastructure adaptation in areas hit hard by cyclones and rising ocean levels. As Simon Coffey, one of Tuval’s ministers at the time, explained, most economic aid is allocated to “mitigation” efforts (reducing emissions). But, and this is the complexity of the situation, even if emissions stop overnight, Oceania will continue to sink for some time and suffer huge material and human losses. Hence the interest in financing it.

The 15th Fiji crisis will not disappear in the short or medium term

Waiting for the international community to wake up, the Pacific Islands can rely more or less on neighbors New Zealand and Australia (Cambira released €360 million to neighboring archipelagos in 2019), and less on the World Rugby Championship. At the beginning of 2022, the Supreme Authority of Casablanca launched a new “Environmental Strategy 2030”. “The plan addresses the urgent need to cut emissions in half by 2030 and achieve net zero emissions by 2040,” WR wrote.

Another beautiful gesture of relative importance that confirms that ocean islands can, above all, rely on themselves. Here again, Adrian Berlandi’s Fiji is a case in point. “We see very wonderful scenes, every day, Fijians working together either to build dams, or going to help everyone on their farm when there are problems. They obviously play a lot of rugby. One of the solutions they have to offer us is the concept of collectivism.” And Cup pitches World Rugby bears witness to that. But for how long? Fiji and Tonga are expected to hold out in the medium term. But for Samoa, so close to sea level, there is cause for concern.

William Pereira