Tuvalu’s Foreign Minister addresses delegates at COP26 from the sea

Tuvalu’s Foreign Minister, Simon Kofe, stood thigh-deep at the coast of Tuvalu as he addressed the delegates at the 26^th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) happening in Glasgow (31^st Oct – 12^th Nov.)

If you didn’t know, Tuvalu is a Polynesian island nation located in the Central Pacific Ocean just below the equator and on the frontline of climate change. If immediate and precautionary steps aren’t taken the island will soon disappear due to rising sea levels and land erosion. His speech has been making rounds on all social media platforms and has become the poster image of climate change. The idea behind having the speech recorded in the ocean was to show the world leaders what first-hand impact of climate change looks like.

Tuvalu's foreign minister has given a speech to the #COP26 conference in Glasgow standing knee-deep in seawater to show how his low-lying Pacific island nation is on the front line of climate change https://t.co/6MHgkbe0o3 pic.twitter.com/J2DKHjexHV

— Reuters (@Reuters) November 9, 2021

Addressing the delegates, Simon Kofe said, “Where I was standing and filming, as you can see behind me, there’s that concrete base that was actually built by the Americans during World War Two. As you can imagine, this base used to be on land and it’s now in the middle of the sea, about 20 or 30 meters from the land. So we are experiencing land erosion. Certain parts of the island are underwater during high tide. These are just a few examples of the threats that we are facing.”

His speech made quite the impact in terms of highlighting the problem of climate change and netizens all over the world are lauding his efforts!