The president of the Marshall Islands has called on the United Nations for climate change to be addressed by the Security Council as nothing less than a security concern of the utmost serious nature.
The Small Island Developing Nations, many of which may be under threat of inundation due to rising sea levels, have appealed to the United Nations for immediate measures to be taken to ensure their survival.
Litokwa Tomeing says the litmus test of the international community's commitment to dealing with climate change is its ability to provide funding for adaptation programmes in small island states.
"Insofar as climate change is concerned, we have no option. We can neither alter the size, nor the height of our islands. They are our natural givens, and we are stuck with them."
Litokwa Tomeing says the world's largest emitters have to shift their moral, economic and political behaviour.
