Tiny islands have powerful voice in UN climate talks

LE BOURGET, France (AP) — They barely break the surface of the ocean but in the U.N. talks on how to stop rising seas and other hazards of a warming planet, small island nations have the moral high ground.

While most countries think of climate change in terms of economic costs, Pacific atolls and remote island groups in the Indian Ocean and Caribbean picture a world map without them on it.

The small islands are also asking for a "loss and damage" mechanism to ensure support when they are hit by climate impacts such as extreme weather events made worse by climate change.

[...] the small islands want a separate section for "loss and damage" to show it's not about adapting to climate change, but coping with unavoidable impacts, said Thoriq Ibrahim, the environment minister of the Maldives and chair of an alliance of small island nations.

In one of the first projects approved by the recently created Green Climate Fund, a U.N. program for poor nations impacted by climate change, the Maldives will receive $23.6 million to secure the freshwater supply on its outer islands.

King tides, when the alignment of the Earth, moon and sun combine to produce the most extreme tidal effects, and storm surges are getting worse, causing floods that contaminate fresh water, kill crops, and erode land.