Apia, August 24 (RHC)-- United Nations chief António Guterres is warning low-lying Pacific island nations could be wiped off the map due to the worsening climate catastrophe. 

Guterres spoke from Samoa, where he met with communities forced to move their homes inland to protect from the threat of rising sea levels and increasingly severe weather events.

Secretary-General António Guterres said: “Those that lived in these houses had to move their homes further inland because of sea level rise and the multiplication of storms. Sea level rise is accelerating.  It’s now the double of what it was in the ’90s.  If we are not able to stop what is happening with climate change, this problem that we see in Samoa will not stay in Samoa. It will be happening more and more everywhere, in all coastal areas, from New York to Shanghai, from Lagos to Bangkok.”

Guterres’s visit comes ahead of the 53rd Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting, which he will attend in Tonga next week.  Guterres called on wealthier nations to uphold their financing commitments ahead of November’s UN climate summit, COP29, in Azerbaijan.