The foreign minister of Tuvalu, an island in the South Pacific, delivered a speech at COP26 standing knee-deep in the ocean to show how vulnerable the nation is to global warming.

In a video message to the event on Tuesday, Kofe spoke from a lectern in a suit and tie, next to a boat in the waters off Funafuti, the island nation's capital. Images of Simon Kofe standing in a suit and tie at a lectern set up in the sea, with his trouser legs rolled up, have been shared widely on social media, drawing attention to Tuvalu's struggle against rising sea levels.

“The statement juxtaposes the COP26 setting with the real-life situations faced in Tuvalu due to the impacts of climate change and sea level rise and highlights the bold action Tuvalu is taking to address the very pressing issues of human mobility under climate change,” Kofe explained ahead of the broadcast of his video message, a news portal reported.

Tuvalu, which is about 2,500 miles southwest of Hawaii, is composed of nine small islands with a population of about 12,000. According to Timeless Tuvalu, the country might be under water by the end of the century. Children are learning about the effects of climate change and possibly growing up in Tuvalu's last generation, according to the website, which explains that many people have already migrated to New Zealand.

According to the World bank, western Pacific Ocean levels have risen at two to three times faster than the global average. They are forecast to rise between 0.5 and 1.1 meters before the end of the century.

The leaders of island nations have already made strong pleas at COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, with Maldivian President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih stating last week, “Our islands are slowly being eaten by the sea, one by one. If we do not reverse this trend, the Maldives will cease to exist by the end of the century.”

Mia Mottley, prime minister of Barbados, said in a speech that global warming of 2 degrees Celsius “is a death sentence for the people of Antigua and Barbuda, for the people of the Maldives, for the people of the Dominica and Fiji, for the people of Kenya and Mozambique, and yes, for the people of Samoa and Barbados.”

Image source: Reuters