Climate talks too late for Kiribati

NEW YORK – The President of Kiribati Anote Tong says whatever action the world decides to take at climate change talks in Paris – it comes too late for low-lying island nations like his own.

Tong was a keynote speaker at the UN General Assembly on Monday where he called for technical know-how and resources to help low lying atoll states adapt to the immediate effects of climate change.

“We are reconciled to the reality that whatever measures we take to remain above the rising seas and protect ourselves from even more severe weather conditions – our islands will never be able to accommodate the current level of population and we do not have the scale of resources required to solve this problem on our own.”

Tong wants Kiribati to be included as an outcome of COP 21 and he called for solidarity in facing what he described as an almost impossible challenge.

Tong told the meeting king tides were already forcing villages to relocate.

“We may be in the world’s last hour in which our planet can be saved,” Tony de Brum, the foreign minister of the Marshall Islands, told the meeting.

Negotiations for a deal to fight climate change were moving at a “snail’s pace”, the United Nations chief, Ban Ki-Moon, said.

Five months before the critical gathering, Ban said talks were bogged down, and that negotiators faced many challenges and controversies.

“The negotiation pace is too slow, far too slow,” Ban told reporters. “It is moving at a snail’s pace.”

He noted there were only 10 formal days of negotiation left before Paris.