Australia offers to help Tuvalu residents escape rising seas and other ravages of climate change...

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced a plan that will initially allow up to 280 Tuvaluans to come to Australia each year.

Australia on Friday offered the island nation of Tuvalu a lifeline to help residents escape the rising seas and increased storms brought by climate change.

At a meeting of Pacific leaders in the Cook Islands, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced a plan that will initially allow up to 280 Tuvaluans to come to Australia each year. Tuvalu has a population of 11,000, and its low-lying atolls make it particularly vulnerable to global warming.

“We believe the people of Tuvalu deserve the choice to live, study and work elsewhere, as climate change impacts worsen,” Albanese said. “Australia has committed to provide a special pathway for citizens of Tuvalu to come to Australia, with access to Australian services that will enable human mobility with dignity.”

Albanese described the new agreement as groundbreaking, and said the day would be remembered as significant, marking an acknowledgment that Australia was part of the Pacific family.

He said the bilateral partnership between the two countries came at the request of Tuvalu. It is called the Falepili Union, he said, and is based on the Tuvaluan word for the traditional values of good neighborliness, care and mutual respect.