15 Oct 2007

WCC urges talks about victims of climate change

4:09 pm on 15 October 2007

The Pacific is being called on to start talking about re-settling the victims of climate change.

Fei Tevi, who heads the Pacific desk of the World Council of Churches, says scientists talk of places like Tuvalu and Kiribati feeling the impact of sea level rise within 15 to 20 years.

But he says civil society think it will happen sooner rather than later.

Mr Tevi says governments in the region may be unwilling to broach the subject but he says civil society could fulfil that role.

"I would rather that we talk about it now and have ten years to prepare ourselves, than to face the situation when we have to decide on entire populations - where they are to go - in two or three years. I would rather have more time to talk about it, to discuss it, to get the communities in these islands to talk about this issue."

Fei Tevi from the World Council of Churches.