TodaysNetworkNews: KIRIBATI PRESIDENT @ COPENHAGEN FOR SINKING ISLAND COUNTRY (IFAD) (UNTV)

TodaysNetworkNews: 14 December 2009 - IFAD - UNTV: The last place inhabited on earth and now the first to go, Kiribati's president will arrive at the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit tomorrow to try and save his sinking country.

As the climate talks continue in Copenhagen, low-lying Pacific islands like Kiribati face a real threat of disappearing into the ocean.

Tomorrow, Kiribatis President, Anote Tong, is expected to make a plea to the international community gathered in Copenhagen, asking countries to reach a global pact to limit carbon emissions and help his country mitigate and adapt to the current threats of climate change.

SOUNDBITE (English) Anote Tong, President of Kiribati:
Mr. President, on climate change while the international community continues to point fingers at each other regarding responsibility for and leadership on this issues our people continue to experience the impact.

According to IFAD, small island states like Kiribati, which contribute only 0.6 percent of all global warming pollution, suffer disproportionately from the effects of climate change.

President Tong calls all 108,000 inhabitants of Kiribati, victims of climate change, living on the frontlines amidst waves crashing into highways and lapping into homes.

SOUNDBITE (English) Anote Tong, President of Kiribati:
We will be victims regardless of what happens. And were just the ones on the frontline now.

Even if carbon emissions are stablized, sea levels are still expected to rise as much as 2 meters by the end of this century shows a recent report by the University of Colorado. This leaves Kiribatis government no choice but to consider relocating its people to nearby countries like Australia and New Zealand.

Kiribati also faces immediate problems of poverty and shrinking food supplies caused by climate change. Convincing development organizations to invest in a country that will not be around in 50 years is often challenging.

SOUNDBITE (English) Ron Hartman, Country Program Manager, International Fund for Agricultural Development:
We would like to understand some of the challenges that you face with the environment. Is there changes people have noticed in weather or the sea?

SOUNDBITE (English) Anote Tong, President of Kiribati:
What is the international community going to do about it? If anything this represents the single biggest moral challenge to human kind and if it doesnt respond to this then there is no credibility to anything. .....TodaysNetworkNews:
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