TU - Tuvalu seeks more than $1 billion for land reclamation survival plan

The island nation of 12,000 people has been advocating for the proposal to more than double the size of its most populated islet during the COP28 United Nations international climate conference underway in the United Arab Emirates.

Currently there is no climate adaptation fund large enough to finance the plan, even as calls grow to help vulnerable nations that lack the economic wherewithal to cope with the consequences of higher average temperatures.

“As we see it, the only means to protect and save Tuvalu from the damaging effects of rising seas is to build more land and build upwards,” Paeniu told BenarNews in an interview on Monday.

A seven-hectare land reclamation that added about 5% to the area of Fogafale – the principal island of Funafuti atoll – was completed in November and hailed by Tuvalu’s government as a “landmark moment.” It was mostly financed by the U.N.’s Green Climate Fund and along with coastal protection works on two other islands in Tuvalu cost about $36 million.

Paeniu said it demonstrates that modern engineering and community planning could help Tuvalu face sea-level rise and determine its own fate.

The bigger ambitions, known as the long-term adaptation plan, are going through a due diligence and costing phase that will also result in a financing strategy, according to Paeniu.

He said three phases were envisaged, the first being the relocation of the airport runway which dominates Fogafale and that could start in 2025 and take three to four years. It would also allow the runway to function as a rain-water catchment and help address the persistent shortages of fresh water in Funafuti.

Tuvalu, a two-and-a-half hour flight north of Fiji, has become emblematic of the plight faced by low-lying islands from projected sea level rise over the coming century.

Kiribati and the Republic of the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean are also dramatically low lying but have more land than Tuvalu, which totals just 26 square kilometers (10 square miles).

The land reclamation plan was first announced by Tuvalu and the U.N. Development Programme during the 2022 climate conference or COP – short for Conference of the Parties to the U.N. agreement among nations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Paeniu said the cost was still to be finalized but estimated at the “low billion mark.”

The International Monetary Fund said in a July report on Tuvalu that the long-term adaptation plan is estimated to cost 2.0 billion Australian dollars – the currency used in Tuvalu – about $1.3 billion at the current exchange rate.

“This is a direct adaptation response to the effects of climate change and this is also the true cost of adaptation to climate change,” Paeniu said. “It cannot be denied that climate finance would need to be supporting permanent solutions, and for Tuvalu, this is our permanent adaptation solution.”