UNifeed: CLIMATE CHANGE / ENVIRONMENTAL REFUGEES

CLIMATE CHANGE / ENVIRONMENTAL REFUGEES

Some experts warn that up to ten percent of the world's population could face displacement because of rising sea levels, drought and natural disasters due to climate change. UNTV / UNEP / TV MALDIVES / FILE

Duration:02:33Date:10 December 2009

Categories:

United Nations Television, ENVIRONMENT, POPULATION, DISASTER PREVENTION, PREPAREDNESS AND RELIEF

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Full Script

STORY: CLIMATE CHANGE / ENVIRONMENTAL REFUGEES
TRT: 2:33
SOURCE: UNTV / TV MALDIVES / UNEP / WFP / UNICEF / UNHCR 
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: RECENT / FILE

SHOTLIST:

FILE – TV MALDIVES – 17 OCTOBER 2009, MALDIVES

1. Various shots, underwater cabinet meeting

UNTV – 21 SEPTEMBER 2009, NEW YORK CITY

2. SOUNDBITE (English) Mohammed Nasheed, President of the Republic of Maldives:
“None of us want to be environmental refugees, so you know we have to be thinking about dry land.”

FILE – WFP – 20 OCTOBER 2009, MANILA, PHILIPPINES

3. Aerial shot, flooded fields outside Manila

FILE – WFP – 19-20 OCTOBER 2009, CANDABA, PAPANGA PROVINCE, PHILIPPINES

4. Tracking shot, flooded community center
5. Various shots, two children riding a canoe on flooded street

UNTV – 19 OCTOBER 2009, NEW YORK CITY

6. SOUNDBITE (English) Margareta Wahlström, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction:
“The countries that are most vulnerable in the combination of other factors today are also most vulnerable to the increasing disaster risk, that’s the poorest countries and the poorest people in the rich countries.”

FILE – UNICEF – AUGUST 2009, SIRAJGANJ DISTRICT, BANGLADESH

7. Wide shot, child coming down to the pond to learn swimming
8. Zoom in, child learning to rescue a drowning child

FILE – UNICEF – 17 SEPTEMBER 2009, AGADEZ TOWN, AGADEZ REGION, NIGER

9. Wide shot, goat among devastation caused by floods
10. Wide shot, families sitting around makeshift tents in a camp for flood affected people
 
FILE – UNHCR – 1-5 APRIL 2009, EASTERN CHAD

14. Wide shot, camp with line of IDPs

FILE – UNHCR - 15-17 SEPTEMBER 2008, NORTHERN UGANDA, NEAR KITGUM

15. Med shot, camp
16. Med shot, fetching water

UNEP – 2 NOVEMBER 2009, NAIROBI, KENYA

25. SOUNDBITE (English) Achim Steiner, Executive Director, UN Environment Programme (UNEP):
“Latest research shows us that we may within the next 90 years, ie by the end of this century, face a reality where sea levels could rise by up to two meters. That essentially is a death sentence of whole small island nations, communities, cultures, societies that have existed for hundreds, sometimes over a thousand years in their places.”

FILE – TV MALDIVES – 17 OCTOBER 2009, MALDIVES

26. Wide shot, Maldives President Mohammed Nasheed and ministers giving a press conference in scuba gear after underwater cabinet meeting
27. SOUNDBITE (English) Mohammed Nasheed, President of the Republic of Maldives:
“We want to see that everyone else is also occupied as much as we are and would like to see that actually people do something about it. If Maldives cannot be saved today, we do not feel there is much of a chance for the rest of the world.”
28. Wide shot, Nasheed swimming away

STORYLINE:

Few leaders have gone as far as Maldives President Mohammed Nasheed to draw the world’s attention to the dangers of climate change. The two thousand Indian Ocean islands that make up the Maldives lie just 1.5 meters above sea level, and the President says a number of islanders are already being forced from their homes because of rising sea levels.
 
Before the Copenhagen Climate Change conference, Nasheed convened an underwater cabinet meeting where ministers, communicating with white boards and hand signals, signed a document calling for global cuts in carbon emissions.

Nasheed previously made headlines by announcing plans to buy a new homeland in another country for the Maldives’ 300,000-strong population, should rising sea levels render the islands uninhabitable one day. In a recent interview with UNifeed, he stressed that this was a last resort, but one he is seriously pursuing.

SOUNDBITE (English) Mohammed Nasheed, President of the Republic of Maldives:
“None of us want to be environmental refugees, so you know we have to be thinking about dry land.”

Many low-lying countries have reason to fear for their “dry land”.

Last year saw 104 globally reported natural disasters, and ninety-nine percent of them were climate related, according to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). In the Philippines, the recent Typhoon Ketsana (also known as Ondoy) inundated the capital Manila and affected more than 3.1 million people.

The Environmental Justice Foundation, a non-governmental organization, warns that 150 million "climate refugees” will be forced to move to other countries in the next 40 years. The organization estimates that nearly ten percent of the world's population is at risk of displacement by climate change.

SOUNDBITE (English) Margareta Wahlström, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction:
“The countries that are most vulnerable in the combination of other factors today are also most vulnerable to the increasing disaster risk, that’s the poorest countries and the poorest people in the rich countries.”

That is why low-lying countries like Bangladesh have been pushing for a fund to support the adaptation and mitigation strategies. They also need a new legal regime under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Protocol to ensure the “social, cultural and economic rehabilitation of climate-induced displaced migrants.”

In Africa, the top United Nations humanitarian official has warned that displacement prompted by natural disasters and climate change, along with the resulting food and water shortages, promises to be one of the greatest challenges in the years ahead.

Many African countries have already experienced the effects of more frequent and intense natural hazard events, including floods and storms, brought on by climate change. The number of people affected in Africa has doubled in the past two decades, up from nine million in 1989 to nearly 17 million in 2008.

Among the current emergencies linked to global warming is the extensive drought in the Horn of Africa. In the Karamoja region of northeastern Uganda, the World Food Programme (WFP) is currently feeding 90 percent of the population.

With life-altering changes already underway for many vulnerable people, the head of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), Achim Steiner told UNifeed that cheerleaders for action on climate change like Mohammed Nasheed should be seen as “climate heroes”.

SOUNDBITE (English) Achim Steiner, Executive Director, UN Environment Programme (UNEP):
“Latest research shows us that we may within the next 90 years, ie by the end of this century, face a reality where sea levels could rise by up to two meters. That essentially is a death sentence of whole small island nations, communities, cultures, societies that have existed for hundreds, sometimes over a thousand years in their places.”

In the case of Maldives, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has warned that a sea level rise of just 60 centimeters over the next hundred years could lead the island nation to disappear entirely.

SOUNDBITE (English) Mohammed Nasheed, President of the Republic of Maldives:
“We want to see that everyone else is also occupied as much as we are and would like to see that actually people do something about it. If Maldives cannot be saved today, we do not feel there is much of a chance for the rest of the world.”

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