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The 100,000 people of Kiribati are on the frontline of climate displacement. DS is working with the government and civil society to find the best ways of overcoming the displacement and other housing, land and property challenges facing this Pacific nation. DS has carried out field visits to work on the issue of climate change-induced displacement in Kiribati in both 2010 and 2011. In this section of the website we will be posting relevant publications, reports, film and other information on the many epic struggles facing the people of Kiribati:
DS Kiribati Photo Essay, February 2012
Kiribati – a country of some 110,000 people, living on land with a maximum elevation of a little over 3 metres – has been shot into the international spotlight due to President Anote Tong’s unique “dignified migration” response to looming climate change – an approach that acknowledges the inevitability of climate displacement and thus endeavours to educate and train the i-Kiribati population so as to make them suitable for acceptance as skilled migrants in neighbouring countries when the fateful climate doomsday does indeed arrive. Drawing upon its extensive work in Kiribati over the last 2 years under its Climate Change and Displacement Initiative (CCDI), Displacement Solutions has just released a photo essay that analyses the government’s climate change approach and proposes a range of innovative yet practical solutions to climate displacement, featuring photographs taken by Jocelyn Carlin during the 2011 joint DS-UN HABITAT mission to the Pacific.
View the Photoessay below.
DS Article – Kiribati and Tuvalu will drown without climate action, November 2010
This article was written by DS director, Scott Leckie, and Dan Lewis of UN HABITAT after the 2010 DS mission to the Pacific and was subsequently published by the Ecologist. It canvasses possible solutions to the looming climate displacement in Tuvalu and Kiribati – to access it, click here.
August-September 2011
From 29 August – 15 September, a DS team visited both Kiribati and Tuvalu as a follow-up of the 2010 mission to the Pacific. As low-lying island nations, both Kiribati and Tuvalu are extremely vulnerable to the effects of climate change, and the citizens of these countries are at risk of losing houses, lands and livelihoods unless pro-active, rights-based solutions are pursued. During their time in these countries, the DS team engaged with numerous politicians, UN officials, civil society actors and local people in discussions on the particular housing, land and property rights issues at play, as well as investigating the human rights dimension of the climate displacement threat. Over the course of the mission, a short film, an article and two photo booklets were produced to document and assess the crisis that is unfolding in the Pacific.
September 2010
Displacement Solutions led a three-person mission to Fiji, Kiribati and Tuvalu in August – September 2010. The mission team comprised of Scott Leckie of DS, Dan Lewis of UN Habitat and Emeretta Cross of the Global Dialogue Foundation explored the looming issue of climate-induced displacement and the particular housing, land and property rights issues that are emerging within the context of solving climate displacement.
DS Director Interviewed on Radio National about Climate Change in the Asia-Pacific Region, April 2012
DS Director, Scott Leckie, spoke with Heather Jarvis on Radio Australia Asia Pacific on 18 April, 2012 about the intended use of land purchased in Vanua Levu, Fiji, by the Government of Kiribati. This interview follows significant coverage of Kiribati President Anote Tong’s plan for ‘dignifed migration’ for the i-Kiribati people in the face of rising sea levels and the many other challenges climate change has brought the island nation. In this interview he discussed a number of relocation and adaptation issues relating to climate displacement in these areas, in particular, addressing the need for investment in both domestic social services in the short to medium-term and long-term planning that may include off-shore solutions. Listen to the interview here.
Radio Australia Interview on the 2010 DS Mission to the Pacific, December 2010
On 14 December, 2010, DS Director, Scott Leckie, spoke to Radio Australia regarding his fact-finding mission in the Pacific Island of Kiribati and Tuvalu that year, and a number of relocation and adaptation issues relating to climate displacement in those countries. To listen, click here.
Kiribati Government climate change portal
For the latest climate change-related news in Kiribati, visit the Government’s climate change web portal here.
Life on the edge
For an eyewitness perspective of the immense displacement and other challenges facing the government and people of Kiribati, please watch this moving video by clicking here.
Kiribati NAPA
For a look at the Kiribati Government’s National Adaptation Program of Action for coping with the effects of climate change in Kiribati, please click here.
Kiribati Photo Gallery
For moving photos of the plight of those affected by climate change in Kiribati, have a look at the photographs of Jocelyn Carlin here.
The Tides of Change
“The Tides of Change” is an article by Jessica Shor about the threat climate change poses for Kiribati. Access it here.
Kiribati – Relocation and Adaptation
In this article from the Forced Migration Review (FMR), McAdam and Loughry discuss the likely effects climate change will have on Kiribati and investigate the possibilities of relocation as a form of adaptation in this instance. To read it, click here.
The Kiribati Adaptation Project (KAP)
The Government of Kiribati has begun to implement an adaptation project in response to the looming spectre of climate change and climate-induced displacement. To learn about this project, please visit their website which is accessible here.
Amnesty International Submission to the UN Universal Periodic Review
In this submission, AI calls for the overcrowding and related issues on the Tarawa Atoll to be addressed as a matter of human rights. To read it, click here.
The New Zealand Aid Programme: Kiribati
This Programme invests money in developing the I-Kiribati workforce and in sustainable urban development in Kiribati. To see the details of this Programme’s work in Kiribati, click here.
National Report to the UNGA Human Rights Council, 3 May 2010
This report evaluates of the human rights challenges facing Kiribati, including those relating to climate change. To access it, click here.
IPCC Climate Change 2007: Small Islands
“Small Islands” is Chapter 16 of the IPCC’s fourth report on climate change. This chapter provides the most thorough assessment published as yet of the effects climate change will have on small island states like Kiribati, Tuvalu and Maldives. To access this chapter, click here.
The Constitution of Kiribati
To see Kiribati’s Constitution and its provisions for housing, land and property rights, click here.
