The purpose of this study was to review selected National Adaptation Plans (NAPs)/Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and contributing documents to better understand how disaster risk management is approached in climate change documents, and if systemic risk issues where impacts cascade across sectors are considered. As such, the study has assessed …
A man from a tiny Pacific island who asked a court in New Zealand to recognise him as the world's first climate change refugee had his appeal rejected and faces deportation. Ioane Teitiota, 38, said his home in Kiribati, the world’s lowest lying nation, was unsafe due to rising sea …
The corals of the South Pacific have been ravaged by bleaching, according to US government scientists. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) said a global die-off was increasingly likely with the return of El Niño conditions. The warmth that caused an unprecedented die-off in the North Pacific in the …
Scientists overestimated the rate of sea level rise between 1901 and 1990, meaning Earth’s oceans have expanded more dramatically in the past 25 years and major coastal cities and island communities could be closer to going under than previous research has shown. That’s the crux of a new study from …
The president of the Pacific island state of Kiribati favors buying more land abroad after a purchase in Fiji, to secure both food supplies and perhaps a future home if rising sea levels swamp low-lying atolls. Anote Tong, in Norway on a stopover to view melting Arctic ice pushing up …
Small island nations, particularly those in the Pacific, are already experiencing "extreme effects" from global warming, and rich nations including Australia have a "moral responsibility" to help them cope with future unavoidable threats, a senior World Bank executive said. Atoll nations including Kiribati, Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands are seeing …
The Republic of Kiribati is a vast South Pacific island group with one of the largest exclusive economic zones (EEZs) in the world. Kiribati waters support a wealth of marine fisheries activities. These activities occur in oceanic, coastal and inshore environments and range from large, foreign, industrial-scale oceanic fishing operations …
World leaders will need to show “real political commitment” if an international treaty to tackle global warming is to be concluded in Paris before the end of next year, according to the Climate Action Network (Can). Alden Meyer, spokesman for the Washington-based Union of Concerned Scientists, told a Can-sponsored press …
New Zealand’s court of appeal has refused refugee status to a family from Kiribati, a Pacific island which is quickly sinking beneath the sea No refugees please, we’re New Zealanders. That’s the message from New Zealand’s court of appeal. In a decision released last week the court endorsed earlier rulings …
Food security problems caused by climate change and ocean acidification will hit small island and coastal nations hardest, environmental group Oceana said on Monday. The Comoros islands in the Indian Ocean headed the non-profit group's rankings of nations most vulnerable to the combined effects of higher carbon dioxide emissions and …
Two of the world's smallest countries are to place nearly 2.5 million square kilometres of south Pacific Ocean in newly created marine protected areas. The Cook Islands, nation of 20,000 people on 15 islands, formally announced on Tuesday the creation of the world's largest marine park covering nearly 1.1m sq …
"It is too early to proclaim the 'ice sheet's future doom'" caused by climate change, lead author Kurt Kjaer of the University of Copenhagen wrote in a statement of the findings in Friday's edition of the journal Science. An examination of old photos taken from planes revealed a sharp thinning …
The island nation of Kiribati is one of the countries most threatened by rising sea levels. However, many of the floods it has seen may be due to a mix of natural variability and human activities, complicating the picture of how rising sea levels are endangering Kiribati and other island …
Pacific island nations and conservation groups have failed to persuade the body that oversees tuna fishing in the Pacific to introduce more stringent measures to protect tuna supply. Negotiations broke down at a meeting in Guam last month (March 26-30) of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC), as …
Coral bleaching is the breakdown of symbiosis between coral animal hosts and their dinoflagellate algae symbionts in response to environmental stress. On large spatial scales, heat stress is the most common factor causing bleaching, which is predicted to increase in frequency and severity as the climate warms. There is evidence …
Replacing traditional foods with imported, processed food has contributed to the high prevalence of obesity and related health problems in the Pacific islands.
A series of surveys were carried out to characterize the physical and biological parameters of the Millennium Atoll lagoon during a research expedition in April of 2009. Millennium is a remote coral atoll in the Central Pacific belonging to the Republic of Kiribati, and a member of the Southern Line …
This document presents the results of a partnership between the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme and the University of the South Pacific. It presents the issues and requirements that Pacific islands face regarding the impacts of climate change …
Rising acidity in the ocean caused by seas absorbing greenhouse carbon dioxide could make low-lying island nations like Kiribati and the Maldives more vulnerable to storms as their coral reefs struggle to survive, say scientists. Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is at its highest level in the past 650,000 years …
