Describing climate change as one of the greatest threats to their survival, leaders of the sinking countries in the Pacific region urged the international community at the 25th Conference of Parties (COP25) to urgently act and avert climate crisis. “ We are clearly on the frontline of climate change. They are realities for countries in […]
Tag: Oceans
New diplomat to UN wants more Pacific say over ocean resources
Solomon Islands’ incoming representative to the United Nations wants to ensure Pacific countries gain control over their ocean resources. Transform Aqorau, who was the original chief executive of the Parties to the Nauru Agreement, helped turn the group of Pacific Island nations into a force to be reckoned with in the international tuna trade. In […]
Environmental engineering solution for sinking islands
A team of UQ researchers is working tirelessly to find an environmental engineering solution for a very human problem in the Solomon Islands, where the lives of entire communities are in turmoil thanks to drastic sea level rises. Dr Simon Albert wants to solve an urgent, catastrophic environmental engineering conundrum. He is focused on the […]
Suspension of COP25 highlights injustice says Pacific NGOs
The Chilean Government has announced the suspension of the UN Climate Summit (COP25), scheduled to take place in Santiago this December, due to the social demonstrations protesting rising costs, debt and inequality, and marred by heavy-handed arrests from state forces in the past weeks. 350.org Pacific Regional Managing Director, Fenton Lutunatabua issued the following statement: […]
A story of resilience on Wagina island in Solomons
In 1964, young Joseph Teia said goodbye to his home in the Gilbertese islands, boarded a vessel and came to Solomon Islands and never returned. He was seven years old when he left. As a young child, he did not understand why he had to leave his home and his father behind to come to […]
US$29 million allocated for new seawall along Ebeye oceanside coastline
Marshall Islands President Dr Hilda Heine has announced a US$29 million funding partnership with the World Bank to design and build a new seawall on Ebeye in the RMI, in a major boost in the fight against climate change. President Heine said even more funding could be allocated to this “very important project” depending on […]
Climate warming promises frequent extreme El Nino events
El Niño events cause serious shifts in weather patterns across the globe, and an important question that scientists have sought to answer is: how will climate change affect the generation of strong El Niño events? A new study, published yesterday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science by a team of international 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 […]
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 […]