International: Pacific
Climate will empty islands in just decades, warns report
27 Apr 2018
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 2018
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 2018
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 2018
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 2017
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 2017
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 2017
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 2017
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 2017
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 2017
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 2017
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 across Oceania.
KIRIBATI CRISIS: A long time waiting for the tide to turn
25 Oct 2017
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 2017
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 2017
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 2017
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 2017
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 2017
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 2017
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 2017
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 2017
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 2017
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 2017
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 2017
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 2017
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 2017
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 2017
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 2017
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 2017
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 2017
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 2017
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 2017
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 2017
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 2017
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 2017
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 2017
The World Bank says New Zealand should accept more migrants from the Pacific to pre-empt a flood of climate refugees.
Whales could help to save Pacific from carbon pollution
13 Apr 2017
If conservation efforts pay off, whales could help Pacific islands to meet their emissions reductions targets.
Tonga and ADB launch climate change fund
1 Mar 2017
The Tongan government and the Asian Development Bank have launched the island group's first climate change trust fund.
Look what they found 5000m down on the Pacific seafloor
14 Feb 2017
Scientists have discovered “extraordinary” levels of toxic pollution in the most remote and inaccessible place on the planet – the 10km deep Mariana trench in the Pacific.
How climate change plays havoc with Pacific weather
10 Feb 2017
Global warming has already increased the risk of major disruptions to Pacific rainfall, according to new research by Australian scientists.
PACIFIC PROBLEM: Carbon cuts will not settle seas
24 Jan 2017
Even supposing the world does make dramatic reductions in carbon dioxide emissions, the fate of the small island states remains uncertain.
Come see Pacific for yourself, MP tells Trump
21 Dec 2016
A New Zealand MP is challenging United States president-elect Donald Trump to come to the Pacific and see the impacts of climate change for himself.
Green Climate Fund gives millions to help Pacific
19 Dec 2016
The Green Climate Fund board has approved eight funding proposals worth $US315 million ($NZ452m) at a meeting in Samoa.
Dear Green Climate Fund, Samoa needs you
13 Dec 2016
The board of the Green Climate Fund this week is meeting in the Samoan capital Apia. Here, the country’s ambassador to the UN outlines his hopes.
Fiji turns beauty queen into climate queen
7 Dec 2016
Miss Pacific Islands 2016, 23-year-old law graduate Anne Dunn, has been appointed Fiji’s ambassador for climate change and the environment.
Tesla powers entire Pacific island using solar energy
25 Nov 2016
American automaker and energy storage company Tesla Motors has powered the Pacific island Ta’u almost entirely from solar energy.
Japan backs Apia climate change centre
28 Oct 2016
A Pacific Climate Change Centre, jointly funded by the Governments of Japan and Samoa as well as the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Program, will be based in Apia.
Asia and Pacific must spearhead climate fight
13 Sep 2016
Asia and the Pacific has been rocked by intense and unstable weather, bringing into even greater focus the need to build resilience against climate change.
We're on the wrong tack in Pacific, says report
7 Sep 2016
New Zealand’s policy of helping Pacific nations to prepare for the impacts of climate change by financing renewable energy projects is under fire.
Cook Islands quietly does the climate business
5 Sep 2016
Three countries have just ratified the Paris Agreement on climate change – China, the United States and the Cook Islands.
Islands fail to agree on plan to protect tuna
5 Sep 2016
Pacific island states have failed to strike a deal to protect shrinking supplies of tuna and adopt cutbacks following a regional conference, officials said, sparking condemnation from conservationists.
Australian rainforests no longer a carbon sink – study
Fri 17 Oct 2025
Australia's tropical rainforests are among the first in the world to start emitting more carbon dioxide than they absorb, scientists said Thursday, linking the "very concerning" trend to climate change.
Climate scientists and republican lawyers are taking aim at Big Tech’s emissions
Fri 17 Oct 2025
Technology companies have long been one of the biggest investors in clean energy, but new accounting rules could upend that.
In China, climate litigation starts with the state
Thu 16 Oct 2025
With thousands of dedicated courts and more than a million recent cases, environmental and climate litigation is booming in China, but it often looks different to the trend seen elsewhere.
'Not up for discussion': Brussels rejects Washington's pressure on climate rules
Mon 13 Oct 2025
In response to US demands to roll back the EU's environmental legislation, the European Commission defended its autonomous power to adopt laws.
Government told to prepare for 2C warming by 2050
Thu 16 Oct 2025
The UK should be prepared to cope with weather extremes as a result of at least 2C of global warming by 2050, independent climate advisers have said.
Renewables are a global economic engine, not a culture war threat
2 Oct 2025
Energy companies are learning this lesson faster than Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.
Indonesia restarts international carbon trade after four years
Fri 17 Oct 2025
Indonesia's President Prabowo Subianto has issued a new decree to restart international carbon emission trading after a four year hiatus.
Scientists discovered something alarming seeping out from beneath the ocean around Antarctica
Mon 13 Oct 2025
Planet-heating methane is escaping from cracks in the Antarctic seabed as the region warms, with new seeps being discovered at an “astonishing rate".
Angola lowers climate ambition in blow to spirit of Paris Agreement
Tue 14 Oct 2025
Angola has scaled back its targets for reducing emissions in its new national climate plan, saying it chose “realism and implementability” over the Paris Agreement's calls for governments to set progressively more ambitious goals.
Four Brazilians to watch at COP30
Wed 15 Oct 2025
Influential Brazilians, from government figures to Indigenous activists, will take center stage during UN climate talks in the Amazon next month.
UN agency says CO2 levels hit record high last year, causing more extreme weather
Fri 17 Oct 2025
Heat-trapping carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere jumped by the highest amount on record last year, soaring to a level not seen in human civilisation and “turbo-charging” the Earth’s climate and causing more extreme weather.
