Pacific

Easter Island becomes one of world's largest marine parks

11 Sep 17 - One of the world’s largest marine protection areas has been created off the coast of Easter Island.

Tributes pour in for islands' climate hero Tony de Brum

24 Aug 17 - Friends and colleagues remember Tony de Brum as a fighter for nuclear justice and a safe climate future, after his death in Majuro aged 72.

Islands need better data to manage climate losses

22 Aug 17 - In the Pacific and the Caribbean, island nations are already hit by climate change, but lack tools to measure the damage for leverage in international negotiations.

Australia just doesn’t get Pacific Islands' challenges

10 Aug 17 - Australia can help Pacific Island communities in a much wider range of ways than simply responding to disasters such as tropical cyclones.

There are ways we can save island nations from rising seas

28 Jul 17 - As sea levels rise, many island states could soon be annihilated and their residents forced to flee, rendering extinct their societies.

Fiji COP presidency must not fail climate victims

20 Jul 17 - Despite warm words about protecting the vulnerable, the island presidency of this year’s UN climate talks is showing no urgency on “loss and damage”.

Rising seas threaten scores of Pacific species with extinction

19 Jul 17 - The Chuuk flying fox. The Black-spotted Cuscus. The Fijian crested iguana. The Mariana skink. The greater monkey-faced bat. Poncelet’s giant rat. They live on islands in the Pacific and they are facing extinction.

How a shipping firm took control of a country’s UN mission

7 Jul 17 - How the climate-threatened Marshall Islands came to be represented at UN shipping talks by a private company based in Virginia, 11,000km away.

Pacific nations push for Paris pact commitments

6 Jul 17 - A commitment by rich nations to the Paris Agreement and an end to fossil-fuel development were the two major issues to come out of a pan-Pacific climate meeting in Fiji this week.

Open your doors to climate refugees, Fiji tells US

4 Jul 17 - Fiji Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama has called on the US to open its borders and offer a permanent home to the people of the Marshall Islands threatened by rising seas.

Paris agreement only way to save coral reefs

28 Jun 17 - Greater emissions reductions and delivering on the Paris climate agreement are now “the only opportunity” to save coral reefs the world over from decline.

US exiting climate pact will hurt small islands

26 Jun 17 - To small island nations where the land juts just above the rising seas, the US pulling out of the Paris global warming pact makes the future seem as fragile and built on hope as a sand castle.

Coral reefs hold the history of the seas

21 Jun 17 - Much like tree rings, coral reefs can tell stories about how environmental conditions have changed over time.

NZ gives Fiji million-dollar handout for UN talks

22 May 17 - New Zealand is giving Fiji $1.3 million and the services of our top climate ambassador to help to chair international climate negotiations later this year.

Is Pacific climate message missing the God factor?

18 May 17 - Well-meaning nations who find their Pacific aid projects don't work out might find the reason, in part, is the sidelining of God.

38 million pieces of plastic waste found on Pacific island

17 May 17 - Henderson Island, part of the Pitcairn group, is covered by 18 tonnes of plastic – the highest density of anthropogenic debris recorded anywhere in the world

OPINION: We must plan for climate refugees

10 May 17 - What will New Zealand do when 12,000 climate refugees from Tuvalu arrive on its doorstep?

Global warming could speed up if the Pacific Ocean gets cranky

10 May 17 - Conditions in the Pacific Ocean over the coming decades will determine how fast we get to 1.5deg global warming.

World Bank presses NZ on climate refugees

9 May 17 - The World Bank says New Zealand should accept more migrants from the Pacific to pre-empt a flood of climate refugees.