By Rich Bowden:

The findings of a key report on the effect of climate change on vulnerable Pacific states have been questioned at climate change talks in Germany.

Ambassador Colin Beck from Solomon Islands has said the Auckland University report released last week, didn’t consider the dangers of long term effects of climate change, including coral bleaching in its findings.

The research, conducted by Paul Kench at Auckland University and Arthur Webb at the South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission in Fiji, claimed some Pacific Islands had grown in size despite rising sea levels over the last sixty years.

The scientists found only four out of 27 islands had reduced in size where local sea levels have risen on an average of 0.08in per year over the past 60 years. This occurred because the surveyed islands has responded to the change in weather patterns, said the researchers, a finding in opposition to fears that many Pacific Islanders will lose their homes due to inundation from the sea.

“There are two separate issues here,” Dr Webb was reported as saying by The Australian. “The first, which we have examined, is shore line erosion. The second is susceptibility of very low-lying islands to inundation — to which we do not bring anything.”

Dr Kench told the ABC their research found that “we’ve now got evidence that the physical foundations of these islands will still be there in 100 years”.

The report claimed some of the Pacific nations such as Tuvalu, Kiribati and the Federated States of Micronesia have added to their land mass through coral debris and sediment.

Calling the research “short-sighted,” Ambassador Beck questioned the motives of releasing the report prior to the Bonn talks and said the full implications of the effects of climate change on Pacific states had not been taken into account.

“This kind of science in our view is short sighted,” Mr Beck said to reporters. “It is sad to see a university from our region make general statement without looking at the long term implications.”

“Of course all corals are growing but they are sensitive to temperature. You cannot say the same thing if the sea continues to rise and to ocean acidification which results in coral bleaching. Unfortunately, the timing of the report is not right for us and we see it as sending a wrong signal.”

“It is politicised science because it tries to bring in a different science reality into the political reality to give the perception that things will be good in the long run.”

The research was published in the journal Global and Planetary Change.

Tags: auckland university, climate change, climate change talks bonn, pacific sea rise, sea rise