Saqani village is located on Natewa Bay in Cakaudrove Province, on Fiji’s second-largest island of Vanua Levu. The effects of climate change and rising sea levels on Saqani village and coastal communities across Fiji are wide-ranging; many of whom depend on the ocean and its ecosystem as a key so
In the Torres Strait, between Australia and Papua New Guinea, lies Bramble Cay—a small, low-lying sandy island once home to a chubby-cheeked, brown rat found nowhere else in the world called the Bramble Cay melomys.
Simon Kofe, Tuvalu’s foreign minister, has filmed a speech to climate summit COP26 knee-deep in the ocean. Kofe aims to highlight the effect of rising sea levels on the small island state in the South Pacific.
Fiji will be highlighting the nexus between oceans and climate change at COP26, and its impact on vulnerable coastal communities. Minister for Climate Change, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says they will also be re-looking at the Paris Rulebook, identifying specific areas that need urgent attention.
Though the sea level is rising, in the South Pacific, many low-lying islands are actually growing.
Some months ago, I was part of a special ocean and culture story-telling workshop on my home island of Erromango, in southern Vanuatu.
Coastal communities around the world are facing increasing threats from tropical cyclones. Climate change is causing rising sea levels and bigger, more frequent storms. Many coastal communities are pondering what to do.
Those who live on the islands and atolls of the southwestern Pacific Ocean are exposed to rising seas and severe storms like almost no one else on Earth, and yet only a fraction are insured against the growing threat of climate change-related ecosystem, human, and economic losses.
The outlying islands of Temotu are some of the worst affected from storm surges and sea level rise...But for the people, disaster risk reduction is not an option.
The climate crisis has been thrashing the Pacific Islands, causing drought, coral reef bleaching, more powerful storms and sea level rise. Super Typhoon Yutu in 2018 left thousands in the US territories of Saipan and Tinian without homes, power and running water for months.