Feet in the sea, a minister from the Tuvalu islands challenges COP26 on rising sea levels<

If COP26 ends on Friday, we can already imagine the image that international opinion will retain. It is Simon Kofe who seems destined to leave his mark on this summit in the fight against climate change. And there is no question here of carbon footprint, because the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Tuvalu Islands did not need to make the trip to Glasgow to strike people's minds and make them aware of the urgency of the cause. ecological.

Water up to your knees

On the contrary, it was by recording his video message from one of the nine atolls that make up his archipelago that Simon Kofe managed to make his voice, and through it, those of its island States who are primarily threatened by rising sea levels.

In terms of form, however, one might at first believe in the great classic. In this video, released last Thursday, we see the Tuvaluan political leader deliver a solemn and somewhat stuffy speech, in the dark regulation costume, while epic music unrolls the loops of his strings and synthesizers.

"It's not just a political statement," he says. Soon the camera reveals to us what is special about his position: he speaks while the water reaches his knees. The video is now circulating massively on social networks.

"We will not sit there doing nothing"

Addressing the participants of COP26, he reminds them of their commitments. "We ask and demand that a temperature increase limited to 1.5 ° C be respected", he slips for example.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Tuvalu is well placed to launch this summons-like manifesto. According to Géopolis, quoted here by the Huffington Post, Tuvalu could have disappeared within fifty years. It must be said that the maximum altitude exceeds only five meters above sea level. And yet, this appalling deadline seems almost distant in view of the difficulties experienced today by the archipelago.

France Info delivered the litany on Tuesday: the islands are covered by waves half the year, and worse, the infiltration of the soil by salt water greatly hinders local agriculture and uproots trees . In the Tuvalu Islands, the climate emergency has - even less than elsewhere - nothing abstract.