WMO Highlights Sea Level Rise Threats, Southwestern Pacific Among Hardest Hit

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has warned that rising temperatures and sea levels pose a significant threat to coastal communities in the Southwestern Pacific.

WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo stated that this trend was evident alongside the global temperature increase in 2024.

According to Saulo, the combination of ocean warming and acidification is causing long-term harm to marine ecosystems and regional economies. "Sea level rise is an existential threat to all island nations," she said, as quoted on the WMO website on Thursday, June 5, 2025.

In 2024, the global average temperature was approximately 0.48 degrees Celsius higher than the 1991-2020 baseline, a rise largely attributed to the 2023-2024 El Niño event. Many countries marked 2024 as the hottest year on record.

The WMO report highlights that much of the Pacific Islands’ population lives within 500 meters of the shoreline. The effects of climate change are already visible in places like Serua Island, Fiji, which has experienced severe coastal erosion and flooding over the past two decades.

Additional impacts include collapsing seawalls, the inundation of homes, and the loss of crops and arable land due to saltwater intrusion.

"On two separate occasions, the island experienced such extreme flooding that it was possible to cross the entire island by boat without encountering land," the report noted.

Changes in rainfall and storm patterns have also contributed to both temperature and sea level rise. Southern Australia, northern New Zealand, and numerous Pacific islands have experienced below-average rainfall. In contrast, parts of Malaysia, Indonesia, the northern Philippines, northern Australia, and eastern Papua New Guinea have seen above-average precipitation, with similar conditions also reported in the Solomon Islands and southern New Zealand.

In the cryospheric zone, rare snow and ice occurrences were reported throughout most of the Southwestern Pacific. In Indonesia, glacial melting accelerated significantly in 2024. Satellite data suggests that ice coverage in western Papua has decreased by 30 to 50 percent since 2022.

"If this rate persists, total ice loss is expected in 2026 or very soon thereafter," the report continued.

Surface warming has contributed to rising sea levels and shifts in ocean currents. It also indirectly affects storm paths and increases ocean stratification, which alters marine ecosystems.

Throughout 2024, vast areas of the Southwestern Pacific experienced abnormally high sea surface temperatures. WMO data from January, April, May, and June 2024 revealed that nearly 40 million square kilometers of ocean were affected, surpassing previous records since monitoring began in 1993.

The combined effects of ocean acidification, warming, and deoxygenation are increasingly disrupting marine ecosystems, habitats, and biodiversity in the region. WMO confirmed that these trends are intensifying in the Southwestern Pacific.

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