Auditors warn that island nations are at risk of extinction due to rising sea levels and the climate crisis. Island nations around the world are calling on more powerful countries to do more to halt global warming after a major UN report highlighted its effects. The alliance of 39 coastal and low-lying nations said the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report was a “major wake-up call for the world” and called for global warming to be limited to 1.5 degrees Celsius to “save lives and livelihoods.” “We need to change this,” said Diann Black-Layne, chief negotiator for the Alliance of Small Island States, on Monday after the IPCC report was released. “The IPCC confirms what small island states are experiencing: that cyclones are intensifying and that sea levels are rising, but it also confirms that we can still prevent the worst.” Keeping temperature increases to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) instead of 2 degrees Celsius, the goal of the 2015 Paris Agreement, would prevent a long-term rise of three meters (9.6 feet), she said. “That’s our future, right there,” she said. The IPCC report, released on Monday, warned that even if carbon emissions were stopped, sea levels would continue to rise even in the best-case scenario, threatening coastal communities with flooding and destruction. The Alliance of Small Island States represents countries from around the world, including Singapore, Seychelles, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, the Bahamas and Belize. So worried is the remote Pacific nation of Kiribati, which consists of three low-lying archipelagos that are just 6 feet above sea level at their highest points, that it is preparing to physically lift its islands out of the sea, in partnership with China. A rise of just 3 feet could submerge two-thirds of Kiribati by the end of this century, the IPCC said. Mohamed Nasheed, president of the Maldives, one of the world’s lowest-lying countries and a leader in climate action for years, said the situation could not be more dire. “This report is devastating news for the most climate-vulnerable countries like the Maldives. It confirms that we are on the brink of extinction. (AICO2NEWS)