Guterres cries SOS on rising seas

Rising sea levels are a looming disaster that risks hitting Pacific island nations particularly hard. This is the message from UN Secretary-General António Guterres at a summit of Pacific leaders:

– I am in Tonga to issue a global SOS – Save our Seas – on rising sea levels.

The warning is in reaction to a new UN report showing that sea levels in some parts of the Pacific have risen by around 15 centimetres in the last 30 years, well above the global average of 9.4 centimetres.

However, there are significant differences within the region. For example, the Cook Islands are roughly in line with the average, while other places, such as the capitals of the Samoa Islands and Fiji, have experienced three times the rise.