Wellington, 27 August 2024 (dpa/MIA) — The Pacific Islands are facing a "triple whammy" of threats due to climate change, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Tuesday.

The islands are facing accelerating sea level rise, ocean warming and acidification, threatening their socioeconomic viability and existence, a report released by the WMO said.

Sea levels had risen in the region above the global average, while sea surface temperatures had risen three times faster than the global average since 1980, the report found.

Marine heatwaves have approximately doubled in frequency since 1980 and are more intense and are lasting longer, the report released by UN Secretary General António Guterres and WMO Secretary General Celeste Saulo at the Pacific Islands Forum in Tonga said.

Guterres described the findings as "an SOS on sea level rise."

"A worldwide catastrophe is putting this Pacific paradise in peril," he said.

"Global average sea levels are rising at an unprecedented rate. The ocean is overflowing."

"The reason is clear: greenhouse gases – overwhelmingly generated by burning fossil fuels – are cooking our planet. And the sea is taking the heat – literally."

Despite accounting for just 0.02% of global emissions – the Pacific islands were uniquely exposed as their average elevation is just one to two metres above sea level; 90% of the population lived within 5 kilometres of the coast and half the infrastructure is within 500 metres of the sea, Guterres said.

"Surging seas are coming for us all – together with the devastation of fishing, tourism, and the Blue Economy. Across the world, around a billion people live in coastal areas threatened by our swelling ocean," he said.

"Yet even though some sea level rise is inevitable, its scale, pace, and impact are not. That depends on our decisions."

He reiterated his calls for drastic cuts in greenhouse gas emissions and increasing in climate adaptation.

Guterres is currently touring the Pacific region. In Tonga he addressed the Pacific Islands Forum leaders' summit, where the leaders of a group of 18 countries in the region are meeting.