Pacific island FM gives climate speech while knee-deep in sea

Funafuti, Tuvalu, Nov 9 (EFE).- Tuvalu’s foreign minister Simon Kofe has given his speech to the United Nations COP26 climate summit while standing knee-deep in the sea in an effort to add urgency to working out ways to address rising sea levels in the South Pacific island.

In the pre-recorded statement that went rival on social networks, Kofe, dressed in a suit and a tie, was standing behind a lectern placed in the ocean.

“In Tuvalu, we are living the realities of climate change and sea-level rise, as you stand watching me today at Cop26,” Kofe told the delegates of the climate summit.

“We cannot wait for speeches when the sea is rising around us all the time. Climate mobility must come to the forefront. We must take bold alternative actions today to secure tomorrow,” he added.

Political leaders, activists, global organizations and companies from around the world are gathered at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow in order to find ways to achieve the goal of the Paris Agreement of limiting global warming to a level of no more than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.EFE

smq/jt