The European Federation had cut its intake of environmental refugees by forty percent.
The people of the Carteret are being called the world's first environmental refugees.
Taking us as environmental refugees, is not what Tuvalu is after in the long run.
The term 'environmental refugee' is also commonly used and an estimate 25 million people can currently be classified as such.
They can be referred to as marginalized minority people, internally displaced persons or environmental refugees.
In the 1990s a variety of estimates placed the number of environmental refugees at around 25 million.
Noting, that "environmental refugees will soon become the largest group of involuntary refugees".
The number of environmental refugees has now reached 25 million, compared with 22 million 'traditional' refugees.
By the year 2010, it is estimated that the number of environmental refugees will have doubled.
His fears is that if he does not take action, the future descendents of the 300,000 islanders could become environmental refugees.