KATOWICE, Poland — By tomorrow (December 15, 2018), the world will know whether Poland’s hosting of the UN climate change summit, commonly known as COP24, has succeeded in delivering a strong outcome, and by extension whether Fiji’s exported concept of talanoa or dialogue had aided in producing such a good outcome. As I write this, […]
Category: Article
COP24 Global Climate Action Opening Unleashes New Finance Pledges
The United Nations Climate Conference (COP 24) today convened a high-level session launching eight days of focused events and dialogues on Global Climate Action, aimed at building a bridge between government delegates and non-Party, public and private stakeholders in the global response to climate change. The event, which featured United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, Poland’s […]
Stakes are high at the UN climate talks in Poland
Three years after signing the historic Paris Agreement, world leaders, businesses and climate advocates converge in Katowice, at the heart of Poland’s coal region, for two-weeks talk to flesh out the rules pertaining to the implementation of the Paris Agreement’s goals of limiting temperature rise to well below 2 degrees Celsius or below 1.5 degrees […]
Pacific journalism students win EJN Best Mobile Journalism Awards
For the first time, the University of the South Pacific awarded Best Mobile Journalism Awards on Environmental Reporting during its 18th USP Journalism Students Awards in October 19, 2018. These awards were created after the Internews’ Earth Journalism Network conducted a Mobile Journalism Workshop on Environmental Reporting with 30 USP journalism students last July 23, […]
Pacific Island countries push for climate-resilient communities
MANILA, Philippines–Nowhere is climate change more evident than in small, low-lying island nations, where entire populations face existential risks to the foreseen intensification of storm surges, cyclones and rise in sea levels. The Pacific Islands have been hit particularly hard. However, people in the region are determined to adapt to these growing realities. In Palau, […]
UN climate change report a call for urgent action
SUVA, Fiji– The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has released its most comprehensive and critical report on climate change for years to come. Its findings show the profound impacts on human life and the decisive actions necessary to keep global temperature rise below 2 or 1.5 degrees Celsius, as well as the huge differences […]
Coastal villagers in Papua New Guinea struggle to confront climate change
Over 200,000 people live in the New Ireland Province north of mainland Papua New Guinea which is surrounded by the Bismarck Sea. Climate change poses a challenge to the lives and livelihoods of the people in the communities, particularly in Panachais Village, which is vulnerable to sea level rise and high tides. For most of […]
Pacific Islands on the front line of climate change: UN chief
The concerns of the Pacific Islands, on the front line of climate change, are at the heart of the United Nations work, said Secretary-General António Guterres on Friday, at a meeting of the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF), an intergovernmental organization, which holds UN Observer status. The meeting, at UN Headquarters in New York, comes shortly after […]
Living with rising seas in the Pacific Islands
As the oceans continue to rise due to a warming world on the coastline of the Pacific region, island residents have not given up hope. They try to find a way to adapt even with limited resources. Moce Islanders from Lau Group in Fiji, for instance, have to leave the land their families have lived […]
Ouvéa, a fragile paradise
Nicknamed “the island closest to paradise,” Ouvéa is considered one of the most beautiful atolls in the Pacific. Part of the lagoons of New Caledonia, it was registered in 2008 as a World Heritage Site under the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Its exceptional biodiversity, long preserved by a way of life […]