Environment
Pacific atolls face $10 billion cost of rising sea, states World Bank
Adjusting to a sea level increase of up to 0.5 metres (1.64 feet) will cost the 3 most vulnerable Pacific atoll nations almost $10 billion equivalent to about twenty years of gross domestic product the World Bank stated in a report on Thursday. Kiribati, Tuvalu and Marshall Islands are amongst the smallest, most remote and dispersed countries in the world, spread throughout 6.4 million square kilometres (2.47 million square miles) of Pacific Ocean, where residents live at an elevation of no more than 2-3 metres, the report said. A 3rd of the population of Kiribati and Tuvalu are at threat...