Feet in the sea, a minister from the Tuvalu Islands calls on COP26 on rising sea levels – BFMTV

Simon Kofe, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Tuvalu Islands, addressed COP26 participants in a video message. The politician had chosen his framework well: it was with water up to his knees that he delivered his speech on the concrete threats brought by the rise in sea levels.

If the COP26 ends on Friday, we already suspect the image that international opinion will retain. It is Simon Kofe who seems destined to leave his mark on this summit in the fight against climate change. And there is no question here of carbon footprint, because the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Tuvalu Islands did not need to make the trip to Glasgow to strike people’s minds and make them aware of the urgency of the cause. ecological.

Water up to my knees

On the contrary, it is by recording his video message from one of the nine atolls that make up his archipelago that Simon Kofe has managed to make his voice heard, and through it, those of his island states threatened primarily by the sea ​​level rise.

On the form, however, we could first believe in the great classic. In this video, broadcast last Thursday, the Tuvaluan political leader is seen delivering a solemn and somewhat formal speech, in the regulatory dark costume, while epic music unwinds the loops of his strings and synthesizers.

“It is not a simple political declaration”, he says however. Soon the camera reveals to us what is special about his position: he speaks while the water reaches his knees. The video is now circulating massively on social networks.

“Climate change and rising sea levels are deadly threats to islands like Tuvalu, and low-lying island countries. We are sinking… and so are others,” says Simon Kofe in English. Anxious to link the local situation to that of Humanity, he adds: “And although we are feeling this impact today in Tuvalu, 100 years from now, we will all feel the terrible effects of this global crisis. “

“We will not stay here doing nothing”

Addressing the participants of COP26, he reminded them of their commitments. “We ask and demand that a temperature increase limited to 1.5 ° C be respected,” he slips for example.

“We will not stand there and do nothing while the water rises. We are mobilizing collective actions in the region and in the world to ensure our future,” he continues.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Tuvalu is well placed to launch this manifesto with the air of summons. According to Géopolis, cited here by the Huffington Post, Tuvalu could be extinct within fifty years. It must be said that the maximum altitude is only five meters above sea level. And again, this appalling deadline seems almost remote in view of the difficulties experienced today by the archipelago.

France Info has delivered the litany this Tuesday: the islands are covered by waves half of the year, and worse, the infiltration of the soil by salt water greatly hinders local agriculture and uproots the trees. In the Tuvalu Islands, the climate emergency is – even less so than elsewhere – nothing abstract.