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Tuvalu/ The small island that is being flooded by global warming

2025-07-24 16:18:00, Kuriozitete CNA

Climate change is particularly threatening to the long-term habitability of the island nation of Tuvalu, which has a land area of just 26 square kilometers and an average elevation of less than 2 meters above sea level, with the highest point of Niulakita being about 4.6 meters above sea level.

Potential threats to the country from climate change include rising sea levels, increasingly intense tropical cyclones, high temperatures, and drought. Royal tides (Perigean spring tides) could combine with storm surges and rising sea levels to inundate low-lying atolls.

Tuvalu/ The small island that is being flooded by global warming

Tuvalu is widely considered one of the first countries likely to be significantly affected by rising sea levels due to global climate change. According to some estimates, higher tides could regularly inundate 50% of the land area of the national capital Funafuti by the mid-21st century and 95% by 2100.

Rising saline groundwater levels could also destroy deep-rooted food crops such as coconut, pulaka and taro before they are covered by the current floods.

Meanwhile, a 2018 study by the University of Auckland suggested that Tuvalu could remain habitable over the next century, finding that the country's islands have also grown in area in recent decades, although the authors stressed that "Climate change remains one of the greatest environmental threats to the livelihoods and well-being of Pacific peoples" and that "Sea level rise and climate change threaten the existence of atoll nations."

Tuvalu/ The small island that is being flooded by global warming

The Human Rights Measurement Initiative finds that the climate crisis has greatly worsened human rights conditions in Tuvalu. Human rights experts said the climate crisis has impacted food, water and shelter security, as well as forced migration.

The installed capacity of photovoltaic generation on Funafuti in 2020 was 735 kW compared to 1800 kW of oil (16% penetration). The South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission (SOPAC) suggests that while Tuvalu is vulnerable to climate change, environmental problems such as population growth and poor coastal management also affect sustainable development. SOPAC ranks the country as extremely vulnerable using the Environmental Vulnerability Index./CNA