In recent weeks, children marched, nations made promises and teenage Swedish activist Greta Thunberg scolded world leaders for “failing us.” But while one of the groups most vulnerable to climate change, the Pacific Islands, may have received fewer headlines, it was among those making the strongest calls for action. Pacific Island government officials in New […]
Tag: Climate
Ocean at ‘breaking point’: Pacific angst at latest climate report
For 74-year-old Teaga Esekia, a chief from the Tuvalu island of Vaitupu, the ocean is a lifeblood. “Tuvaluans, they have different types of months, not like January to December,” said the elderly but agile man, who still climbs coconut trees every day. “They have their seasons according to fish and planting. We tell the time […]
Saving Pacific Islanders from geoengineering
Geoengineering will save us from the climate crisis, its champions insist. By using technology either to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere or to deflect some solar radiation away from the Earth, they claim, we can undo the damage wrought by humanity’s failure to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. But while it certainly sounds like […]
Pacific region shows leadership and ambition in its national climate efforts
Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) are key to sustainable development and are the building blocks for low carbon development (LCD). Reflecting on the commitments of Pacific Leaders to net-zero emissions and resilient societies by 2050 at the Pacific SIDS High level breakfast event in New York, Climate Analytics managing director, Dr Bill Hare said by implementing […]
Cook Islands calls for immediate and full replenishment of Green Climate Fund at the United Nations
Cook Islands has called for immediate and full replenishment of Green Climate Fund at the United Nations. Speaking at the United Nations in New York Tuesday at the Commonwealth Minister’s Dialogue on climate change, resilience building and ocean action, Deputy Prime Minister Mark Brown said “nothing less than full replenishment of the Green Climate Fund […]
Fiji launches fund for people displaced by climate change
Fiji’s Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama launched in New York on Monday the world’s first relocation fund for people displaced by climate change. “Our new trust fund is undeniably one of the most effective ways that we can help our communities adapt to climate change. And it is also undeniably one of the most effective ways […]
Climate strikers seek action to avert disaster
NEW YORK — Climate change continues to pose an existential threat to many low-lying countries in Asia and the Pacific, with rising seas putting people’s homes, livelihoods and culture at risk. At a more extreme level, some communities are already being relocated because of rising waters, making future movements across borders a very plausible reality for many people, especially […]
Tuvalu youth to join strike for climate in New York
A young woman from the climate change-impacted island country of Tuvalu, is attending the first ever UN Youth Climate Summit in New York on Saturday, 21 September. Lilipeti Suiti Faavae is one of 500 hundred young people from around the world selected to attend the Youth Climate Summit after demonstrating their commitment to addressing […]
Fiji PM calls for urgent need for the world to step up its response to climate threat
Pacific Islanders and climate-vulnerable people the world over will welcome our collective declarations at the end of the 50th Pacific Islands Forum in Tuvalu on the urgent need for the world to step up its response to the climate threat says Fijian Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimara. “There is no doubt that holding our gathering in […]
Palau tells Australia to step-up on climate
Palau has called on Australia to do more to tackle climate change, saying the Pacific’s “big brother” has an obligation to act on an issue that threatens the existence of its small island neighbours. Australia has launched a diplomatic push it calls the Pacific “step-up” to boost its influence and counter growing Chinese influence in […]