Climate Change

Elisabeth Holland, who's based at the University of the South Pacific, said the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) Special Report - which she contributed to - painted another dire forecast.

The report found oceans were heating at such a rate their chemistry is being altered which, in turn, is threatening food supplies, fuelling more extreme cyclones, and posing a profound threat to people who lived in low-lying areas.

During Prince Charles' trip next month, he will launch a national ocean policy and a malaria elimination roadmap.

The prince will also learn about sustainable fisheries management in the Pacific.

A statement from the Solomon Islands government said the prince would also meet with Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare and other leaders in Honiara.

Prince Charles will be in Solomon Islands on the 24 and 25 of November, following his visit to New Zealand and Tuvalu.

The prince last visited Tuvalu in 1970.

"You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words," she told a UN climate summit in New York.

About 60 world leaders are taking part in the one-day meeting organised by UN Secretary General António Guterres.

He earlier said countries could only speak at the summit if they came with action plans to cut carbon emissions.

US President Donald Trump, a climate change sceptic, had not been expected at the meeting - but he was briefly spotted in the audience.

Johann Bell from NGO Conservation International said when Cyclone Pam tore through Vanuatu in 2015 it took 18 months to restore significant fishing.

That was because its coastal Fish Aggregating Devices (FADs) were destroyed, he said.

The NGO has teamed up with the Vanuatu fishing authority to fill two disaster proof containers with FADs materials so the large scale tuna lures can be restored following a cyclone.

People could be fishing again about three weeks after a disaster, Dr Bell said.

Ms Ardern made the announcement in Tuvalu, where she is attending the 18-nation Pacific Islands Forum which starts today.

She said the government was ring-fencing half of its global commitment to climate change-related development, to ensure it went to the Pacific.

The funding will go towards providing infrastructure such as water tanks, better tools for dealing with droughts, floods and coastal inundation, as well as further climate hazard mapping and risk planning.

Last week a number of Pacific nations signed a declaration calling for greater action against what they called a "Climate Crisis" and an end to coal mining.

Palau's President Tommy Remengesau Junior also made a plea for Australia to take further climate action and the environmental NGO Greenpeace said the country should step aside from engaging in the region, if it wasn't going to change its policies around coal and energy.

Its vice president for East Asia and the Pacific, Victoria Kwakwa, was in Tonga last week for talks.

Ms Kwakwa said the World Bank was working closely within Australia's Step Up and New Zealand's Pacific Reset programmes.

"We've been working on several things including supporting countries to strengthen their climate change resilience, working to support policy reforms to build their economic resilience and we're also working together on the connectivity agenda," Ms Kwakwa said.

"As you know, this region is very remote, even compared to other small island states."

But observers said no substantial change is expected for Australia's engagement in the region after the Coalition's surprise win at the weekend.

Shane McLeod of the Australian think-tank, the Lowy Institute, said Australia's so-called Pacific step up, a suite of policies and funding initiatives brought in in 2017, will likely continue.

But he said with losses on the hard right, there may be more room for the government to manoeuvre on climate change.

In a statement, the UN chief said climate change is now an existential threat to the Pacific countries. He called on all decision-makers around the world to show ‘enlightened self-interest’ because it is not only the Pacific that is at stake, it is the whole planet. He stressed that to save the Pacific is to save the whole planet.

During his visit, Guterres met with Tallis Obed Moses, President of Vanuatu. The two discussed the effects of climate change on the small island State and efforts being made to increase its resilience.

Following a high-level political dialogue with the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres in Suva, the leaders issued a statement saying climate change is the ‘single biggest threat to our Blue Pacific region.”

Forum Chair and Nauru President, Baron Waqa read the statement on behalf of the leaders.

The Pacific leaders said all countries must take decisive and transformative action to reduce global emissions and ensure at scale mitigation and adaptation support for those countries that need it.