Pacific

Climate will empty islands in just decades, warns report

27 Apr 18 - Low-lying atolls around the world will be overtaken by sea-level rises within a few decades, according to a new study.

Climate change threatens Fiji's survival, says PM

4 Apr 18 - Fiji is in a fight for survival as climate change brings almost constant deadly cyclones, says Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama.

Changing climate threatens Easter Island's mighty moai

19 Mar 18 - Rising sea levels are eroding Easter Island and its many archaeological sites, including its iconic moai statues and village remains.

NZ and island nations pay climate fee on time

30 Jan 18 - New Zealand and five small states in the area are among the handful of countries that have paid this year’s dues to the United Nations’ climate change work.

Fiji summit calls for action on climate migration

11 Dec 17 - Civil society leaders from more than 100 countries meeting in Suva have called for action on climate-induced displacement.

Rising tides lap at the Pacific's dome of poison

29 Nov 17 - Rising seas caused by climate change are seeping inside a United States nuclear waste dump on a remote and low-lying Pacific atoll.

It's not a done deal, low-lying islands can shape a future

20 Nov 17 - While the plight of low-lying Pacific islands should not be ignored, it is just as damaging to assume that their fate is already sealed.

Fiji told it must spend billions to adapt to climate change

13 Nov 17 - Fiji must spend an amount equivalent to its entire yearly gross domestic product over the next 10 years to counter the challenges of a changing climate.

Risk growing for Pacific islands, says study

10 Nov 17 - Many nations have become less vulnerable to natural disasters ranging from cyclones to earthquakes because of improved preparedness, but Pacific island states remain most at risk, a new study shows.

LOST LANDS: Rising seas washed away Pacific history

9 Nov 17 - The story of the now-vanished Micronesian island of Nahlapenlohd holds some valuable lessons about recent climate change in the western Pacific.

Pacific Islanders call on Australia not to fund Adani

2 Nov 17 - Pacific Islanders whose homes face eradication by rising sea levels have called on Australia to not fund the Adani Carmichael coalmine, as a new report reveals the worsening impact of climate change...

KIRIBATI CRISIS: A long time waiting for the tide to turn

25 Oct 17 - The 33 islands of Kiribati are under threat from climate change. But the islanders have not given up hope.

NOT GUILTY: Easter Island falsely blamed for own demise

16 Oct 17 - Rapa Nui (Easter Island) has become the ultimate parable for humankind’s selfishness; a moral tale of the dangers of environmental destruction. But new research paints a very different picture.

Ministry denies cutting climate aid to Pacific

9 Oct 17 - New Zealand is denying an accusation that it is cutting its climate aid to the Pacific.

Tsunami wreckage serves as liferafts for invasive species

3 Oct 17 - Hundreds of species were carried across the Pacific to North America by debris — estimated to weigh a total of nearly 1.5 million tonnes — that was swept out to sea after the 2011 Japan earthquake.

VIVA VIKA: Giant rat lives in trees and eats coconuts

29 Sep 17 - A fabled giant rat known as the vika is the first new Solomon Islands rodent to be described in more than 80 years.

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.