Tuvalu is running out of time

Sinking country fights to keep maritime boundaries as sea levels rise.

Sign up for Reuters newsletters One Essential Read One Essential Read Recommended by Edson Caldas, Newsletter Editor Trying to stay above water   Villages cling to a strip of land as narrow as 20 meters in parts of Funafuti, the main atoll of Tuvalu. REUTERS/Kirsty Needham As the United Nations General Assembly holds a meeting on sea-level rise, Prime Minister Feleti Teo is seeking support for Tuvalu's campaign to have its maritime boundaries recognized as permanent. The clock is ticking for his country and its 11,000 people. "They have a very clear timeline of when their population will need to move and they really want to lock down this issue of sovereignty and the legal issues that surround sea-level rise for small island states that see it as an existential threat," my Reuters colleague Kirsty Needham explained on today's Reuters World News podcast. Tuvalu, whose mean elevation is just 2 meters, has experienced a sea-level rise of 15 cm over the past three decades, one-and-a-half times the global average. Read the full article Sponsors are not involved in the creation of newsletters or other Reuters news content. Advertise in this newsletter or on Reuters.com Reuters One Essential Read is sent three days a week. Think your friend or colleague should know about us? Forward this newsletter to them. They can also sign up here. Want to stop receiving this email? Unsubscribe here. To manage which newsletters you're signed up for, click here. Terms & Conditions and Privacy Statement © 2024 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved. 3 Times Square, New York, NY 10036