Scott Morrison and Joe Biden could jointly get a first-hand view of how climate change is impacting on Pacific nations at a meeting later this year. Mr Morrison joined 17 other leaders for a Pacific Islands Forum online meeting on Wednesday, ahead of a face-to-face meeting scheduled for August.
Dave Butler was a quiet achiever who had an extraordinary love for natural history and the environment. After a battle with prostate cancer, Butler passed away at his home in Nelson on December 20 at the age of 67.
The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons comes into force under the provisions of international law after recently reaching its 50th ratification at the United Nations. Ten Pacific countries including New Zealand were central to the treaty coming into effect.
The chair of the Pacific Islands Forum has welcomed the re-entry of the United States to the Paris climate agreement. With hours of his taking the oath as the 46th US President, Joe Biden issued an executive order for the US to return to the Paris Agreement.
Leaders of the Pacific island countries have at their last meeting endorsed the development of a 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent, while acknowledging the need for urgent and immediate actions against the threats and challenges of climate change.
Across the globe, sea level rise is threatening island communities. But in the Pacific Ocean, some atolls—ring-shaped islands sitting on coral reefs—are actually expanding over time, posing a perplexing paradox: How can drowning islands also be growing?
Pacific leaders have condemned Australia’s Paris climate target as “one of the weakest”, urging Canberra to commit to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 and abandon its Kyoto carryover credits.
...while the Blue Pacific has led and made the strong moral case for action on climate, this progress is at risk of unravelling if we do not also step up to the related crisis of nature loss. Our islands and history are closely intertwined with the ocean and its biodiversity.
Australian research shows the Covid-19 pandemic could spark a food crisis in the Pacific.
Joe Biden’s presidential ascension had not even been settled when Fiji’s forthright prime minister was already urging greater US action on climate change from the incoming American leader. “Congratulations Joe Biden,” Frank Bainimarama tweeted on Saturday afternoon.
