Results for Climate change

Discussions around the overall health and safety of Pacific Islands impacted by extreme weather events induced by climate change were discussed at a World Health Organization (WHO) meeting last week over two days on 15 and 16 March in Suva, Fiji.

Developing countries had a win at COP23 after difficulties arose when developed countries as well as Fiji, who was presiding over the conference, almost side-lined pre-2020 climate action negotiations in Bonn, Germany.

Next year’s “Talanoa Dialogue” – to be convened by Fiji, which last week became the first island state to chair UN climate talks – will help countries identify exactly how they can achieve the goals set in the Paris agreement. That dialogue, which countries should approach in good faith, must be a springboard for further action. By Hilda Heine and Kevin Rudd

The Earth today is more than 1°C hotter than it was in pre-industrial times, and the terrible symptoms of its fever are already showing. This year alone, back-to-back hurricanes have devastated Caribbean islands, monsoon flooding has displaced tens of millions in South Asia, and fires have raged on nearly every continent. Pulling the planet back from the brink could not be more urgent. Those of us who live on the front lines of climate change – on archipelagos, small islands, coastal lowlands, and rapidly desertifying plains – can’t afford to wait and see what another degree of warming will bring. By Loren Legarda

Fiji will receive a $31 million grant from the Green Climate Fund (GCF) through the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and a $42 million ADB loan for climate resilience projects and improving water and sanitation services.

A declaration outlining actions to tackle Climate Change is circling the Pacific Island countries for support before being delivered to world leaders at COP 23 in Bonn, Germany.

Climate change impacts are evident everywhere in the Pacific, where many communities are on the front line of its damaging impacts, said Australia’s Ambassador for Environment Patrick Suckling, who is visiting the Pacific region.

As global temperatures rise and droughts become more common, political agitation, social unrest, and even violence will likely follow. Scientists agree that climate change poses a grave danger to the planet. But for some reason, politicians and government officials have not connected the dots between a changing climate and human conflicts. Among the many threats associated with climate change, deteriorating global security may be the most frightening of all. It is bad enough to see farmers carrying skulls through the streets of India. But if we do not get serious about climate-driven security risks, we could see far worse. By Gulrez Shah Azhar

In the Pacific region many of the natural disasters experienced are related to water and climate, Hon. Samuel Manetoali told the opening meeting of the Pacific Meteorological Council on August 14 in the Solomon Islands, saying "We are most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change... and climate variability". By Linny Folau in Honiara.