NEWS

The President of Kiribati, Anote Tong, says his country is looking at a number of strategies to try and cope with sea level rise.

The other two Pacific nations most threatened by climate change, Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands, say the question of relocation should not be raised.

But Mr Tong, speaking during the Pacific Islands Forum summit in Majuro, says in Kiribati’s case they know that in future the country, with less land and compromised water supplies, will not be able to support all its people.

He says Kiribati has an adaptation framework that allows for relocation, but he says, given a current population of more than 100,000, they are not considering migrating en masse.

“There is no way that any country or that all of these people will be able to migrate but we are acknowledging the reality that the land will not be able to sustain the level of population that it currently does. In addition will be also be maintaining the integrity of as much of the land that we can. Then again our ability to do that will be limited by the resources made available to us.”