Island Nations Refuse to Surrender as Rising Seas Threaten Existence

UNITED NATIONS
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Sept. 26, 2026, 12:41 p.m. ET
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4 min read

When Palau President Surangel Samuel Whipps Jr. recently took his children to Helen Island, two-thirds of it had vanished. Rising seas driven by climate change submerged generational burial grounds, erasing a people’s entire culture and identity.

“For us, it’s devastating,” Mr. Whipps told The Associated Press on Friday, four decades after his previous visit. “It doesn’t mean we should give up.”

In the global power dynamics of the United Nations General Assembly, small island states like Palau often find themselves on the sidelines, offering moral counsel to powerful nations that don’t always listen. After all, their countries are tiny—nearly 11 Marshall Islands, or roughly 30 Tuvalus, could fit inside New York City, where the U.N. is headquartered.

Now, some of the little land they do have is disappearing.

“Sometimes,” Mr. Whipps said, “you get drowned out.”

He was referencing unequal power dynamics, but the phrase also applies literally. When it comes to climate change, many of the world’s island nations have banded together to amplify their voices. They serve as the conscience of a warming world, pleading for an end to carbon pollution before it is too late.

Warming world imperils small island states

In 2015, when the world was poised to sign the landmark Paris climate pact, small island nations successfully advocated for tightening the global warming limit from 2 degrees Celsius to 1.5 degrees since pre-industrial times. At the time, island nations declared it a matter of survival.

Now, scientists and the United Nations have acknowledged that the world is likely to breach the 1.5 degrees threshold—a long-term average—within the next year or two. The best hope to prevent this from becoming permanent is for the world to eliminate coal, oil, and gas use in the coming decades, allowing temperatures to eventually drop back below 1.5 degrees this century, they said.

“Each fraction of a degree of warming increases the risk of irreversible sea level rise,” said Anna Rasmussen, chief negotiator for the Alliance of Small Island States. “We absolutely cannot surrender our pursuit of 1.5.”

What does breaching 1.5 degrees mean? “Death,” said Joyelle Clarke, environment minister for the Caribbean island nation of Saint Kitts and Nevis, speaking outside the U.N. Security Council.

This is profoundly unfair, as small islands did not cause climate change, Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine stated during her speech to the General Assembly on Friday; large industrial nations did.

“We’ve seen schools destroyed by rising seas, salt water poisoning our wells, and disease outbreaks linked to environmental change,” Ms. Heine told fellow leaders. “This injustice must be addressed. Our communities deserve restitution.”

Small island states band together at U.N.

Earlier this week, the U.N. adopted a resolution asserting that small island states must retain sovereignty and marine rights regardless of rising seas. A major message from nation after nation: Despite rising waters, they are not going anywhere.

“The survival of our nations cannot be negotiated,” said Adão Soares Barbosa, special envoy on climate affairs for East Timor and chair of the Least Developed Countries Group on Climate Change. “We cannot absorb another year of promises without delivery.”

Tuvalu Prime Minister Feleti Teo noted his country may only have 26 square kilometers of land, but it governs 750,000 square kilometers of oceans.

“Tuvalu’s nationhood is not negotiable,” echoed Mr. Teo, who described climate change as the “single greatest existential threat” to his country. “Our people should never be forced to choose between their homeland and their future.”

Marshall Island Foreign Minister Kalani Kaneko stated his people “have no other choice but to finally stay home, raise our own people, speak our own language, and protect our own identity. We’re not giving up.”

Ms. Clarke, from Saint Kitts and Nevis, said the rest of the world does not feel or see what island nations are enduring.

“For many folks that look at the islands in the Caribbean and the Pacific, they see paradise. They see the two-week getaway—sun, sand, sea, adventure,” Ms. Clarke said. “The very beaches that you travel thousands of miles to visit for your holiday, those beaches are disappearing.”

Ms. Clarke, who also works with her nation’s youth, said “We’re seeing a generation that’s losing hope, constantly facing despair, questioning, ‘Why should we care? Why should we do anything, when you all don’t care enough, and the world doesn’t care enough, about our future?’”

This issue hits home for Mr. Whipps from Palau, who has adult children but no grandchildren.

“The sad part is, some of the kids, you talk to them, and they don’t want to have children, because they think, ‘Why do you want to bring them to a world that’s faced with these problems?” he said. “That’s also something that we need to take responsibility for.”

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