Jun 08, 2014 01:22 PM EDT By Russell Westerholm, UniversityHerald Reporter

The United Nations has been made aware that rising sea levels caused by climate change is washing Japanese World War II graves ashore on the Marshall Islands.

According to BBC News, Tony De Brum, the Islands' foreign minister, addressed the group at the U.N. climate discussions in Bonn, Germany. He said high tides caused at least one grave with 26 dead Japanese soldiers to be exposed.

The Marshall Islands are especially vulnerable to rising sea levels since the high point is just two meters above the water. With 70,000 people living on the island, the salt water is eroding streets, rendering lands barren and submerging the natural barriers.

"These last spring tides in February to April this year have caused not just inundation and flooding of communities but have also undermined regular land, so that even the dead are affected," De Brum, said at the meeting. "There are coffins and dead people being washed away from graves, it's that serious.

"We think they are Japanese soldiers, no broken bones, no indication of war, we think maybe suicide."

The U.N. Environmental Program recently published a report indicating the Marshall Islands are more vulnerable than others in the Pacific Ocean. From 1993 to 2009, the islands' sea level rose at a rate of 12mm per year, nearly four times the national average of 3.2mm annually.

The U.N. climate meetings are meant to develop a written agreement for the world's leaders to curb carbon emissions. Earlier this year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a U.N. group of environmentalists and scientists, published a massive report suggesting global warming is inevitable. The group recommended world leaders make sweeping changes immediately to lessen their carbon footprint.

"We cannot continue with the old firewall thinking to be blunt. This is not a static thing," European Union climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard said at the meetings. "One country's fair share must also depend on where they are in terms of economic development."

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