It is currently "estimated" that sea level change is about 0.3 mm/year - or about 1.5 inches/100 years - for all of the scientifically illiterate Americans and the author. (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_level#Sea_level_change)
Considering land subsidence, tectonic upthrust, and various astronomical forces that affect gravity, tides and the shape of the earth - it would be a pretty safe bet that no one is capable of measuring changes that small - even with satellites. Especially considering there are no accurate fixed bench marks from 100 years ago. So, as usual you have to follow the money.
Kiribati is an international economic basket case, while it may be suffering from subsidence and more active evaporative cooling cycles - storms, global warming isn't likely raising sea levels on them significantly. Like most of these "countries" their main cash flow is from international aid. I'm sure they have an entire brigade of foreign aid grant application writers. That is the basis of this regurgitated press release - foreign aid publicity and not sea level rise.
