In this bulletin:
1. PACIFIC — Pacific prepares to defend 1.5°C as world turns to implementation
2. PACIFIC — COP31 urged to protect Pacific health systems from climate threats
3. FIJI — Fiji Health Ministry braces for climate change — Dr Lalabalavu
4. PACIFIC — Pacific puts Australia on notice as COP31 opens in Türkiye
5. FIJI — Stay bid dismissed in former Fiji Deputy PM Prasad and Waqanika cases
6. FIJI — Four Fiji weather stations record driest October in history
7. PACNEWS BIZ — Vanuatu unveils record VT93.1 billion budget
8. PACNEWS IN FOCUS — Billions came fast for the fuel crisis – the Pacific still waits for climate finance
9. PACNEWS DIGEST — The Pacific nations have done their part on climate change. Now COP31 must deliver
10. PACNEWS DIGEST — Locally led climate finance needs apprenticeships, not more readiness workshops
11. PACNEWS DIGEST — From a ship frozen into Arctic ice, a warning to world leaders: Trust the science
12. PACNEWS DIGEST — The Family Planning to Stay Deserves More Than a Climate Headline
PAC – COP31: ISLANDS BUSINESS PACNEWS 3: Tue 10 Nov 2026
Pacific prepares to defend 1.5°C as world turns to implementation
By Sera Tikotikoivatu- Sefeti
ANTALYA, 10 NOVEMBER 2026 (ISLANDS BUSINESS) —As more than 80,000 delegates gather in Antalya, Türkiye, the Pacific is entering another critical round of climate negotiations with a clear message: implementation cannot come at the expense of ambition, and the world must not abandon the 1.5°C goal.
COP31 is being framed as an Implementation COP, with host Türkiye and Australia, which is leading the negotiations, seeking to put greater emphasis on turning climate commitments into action.
But for the Pacific, implementation must begin with a fundamental question: how does the world deliver a livable future for countries already experiencing the consequences of climate change?
In his opening remarks, COP31 President-Designate Murat Kurum said protecting humanity’s future was what had brought the world to Antalya, calling for countries to move beyond promises and ensure that decisions translate into meaningful outcomes.
“Sharing that calendar means sharing responsibility,” he said.
“Together with Australia, we are ready to ensure the Pacific is heard and to help find solutions to the challenges facing vulnerable countries.”
Kurum warned that delaying investments in resilience and adaptation finance would only increase the costs of climate change, with future disasters and humanitarian crises becoming more difficult to manage.
“Postpone an investment in resilience today, and tomorrow we may face the cost of a disaster. Fail to deliver adaptation finance today, and tomorrow’s humanitarian crisis may be worse,” he said.
“Let our promises deliver results. Let our decisions unlock investment. Let our knowledge be put to work.”
His message sets the tone for a conference where the pressure to deliver is high. Yet, for Pacific Island countries, the question of implementation is inseparable from the need to keep the 1.5°C temperature limit within reach.
As negotiations begin, the region is preparing to once again make the case for stronger climate ambition, warning that any temporary overshoot of 1.5°C carries serious consequences for small island developing states.
SPREP Director of Climate Change and Resilience, Tagaloa Cooper, “said the possibility of exceeding 1.5°C was catastrophic for Pacific communities.”
“The magnitude and duration of an overshoot must be minimal for many of our communities to have a livable future. We have to come back to 1.5°C rapidly and we have the technologies and capacity to do so. We just need the political will.”
For the Pacific, the 1.5°C threshold is not simply a negotiating position or a scientific benchmark. It represents the difference between the scale of climate impacts communities can prepare for and those that could fundamentally threaten their future.
The region has spent years bringing its lived experiences into international climate negotiations, often having to defend the science behind its calls for urgent action.
In earlier negotiations, Pacific representatives repeatedly faced questions about the evidence supporting their warnings. Today, the scientific findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), alongside the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion on states’ obligations in relation to climate change, have further strengthened the scientific and legal basis for climate action.
Yet concerns remain that the integrity of climate science and the 1.5°C temperature goal could once again become contested ground in the negotiations.
The Pacific Islands Climate Action Network (PICAN) is calling on world leaders to hold the line on 1.5°C at COP31, warning against the growing acceptance of pathways that exceed the agreed temperature limit.
PICAN International Policy Lead, Dr Sindra Sharma, “said the Pacific had been clear about what it expected from the international community.”
“We are deeply concerned by the growing willingness to treat exceeding 1.5°C as an acceptable pathway,” she said.
“Every fraction of warming matters, and even temporarily crossing that threshold carries consequences that cannot simply be reversed.”
For Pacific people, those consequences are already visible. They are reflected in the loss of land, declining livelihoods and the growing uncertainty facing families whose futures are increasingly shaped by climate change.
Behind every fraction of warming are communities confronting difficult questions about where they will live, how they will sustain their livelihoods and what kind of future they can offer their children.
Sharma said, “the region could not afford a conference that weakened ambition when the scientific evidence demanded greater urgency.”
“We cannot afford a COP that lowers ambition when the science demands greater urgency.”
While negotiations will take place behind closed doors, the Pacific’s presence and priorities will also be visible through the Moana Blue Pacific Pavilion, the region’s home away from home in the COP space.
The pavilion is hosting a packed programme of side events, discussions and activities bringing together Pacific governments, regional organisations, civil society groups and development partners to highlight the region’s priorities and experiences.
This year, the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) has also brought together 17 Pacific journalists to cover COP31, providing an important platform to amplify regional voices and report on the realities of climate change across the islands.
Their coverage will help connect the discussions taking place in Antalya with the communities and countries whose futures are at stake in the decisions being made.
As the conference gets underway, Pacific leaders, Council of Regional Organisations in the Pacific (CROP) agencies and civil society representatives are preparing to return to the negotiating rooms with a familiar but increasingly urgent message.
The world has the science. It has the technology. It has the commitments.
What the Pacific is demanding now is the political will to deliver.
For the region, COP31 must be more than an Implementation COP in name. It must be a conference that protects the integrity of the 1.5°C goal, delivers on climate finance and ensures that the promises made by world leaders translate into action for the people and communities already on the frontline of climate change.
The Pacific has spent decades making its case to the world. In Antalya, it is returning to ensure that case is not lost in the negotiations…. PACNEWS
PAC – COP31: PACNEWS PACNEWS 3: Tue 10 Nov 2026
COP31 urged to protect Pacific health systems from climate threats
ANTALYA,10 NOVEMBER 2026 2026 (PACNEWS) — More than 60 percent of hospitals surveyed across 14 Pacific Island countries are located within 500 metres of the sea or a river, exposing critical health facilities to flooding, storm surges and rising sea levels as climate change intensifies.
The warning comes as health experts urge governments at COP31 to put the protection of vulnerable communities and climate-resilient health systems at the centre of global climate decisions.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) says Pacific countries face growing health risks from extreme heat, cyclones, floods, rising sea levels, food and water insecurity, infectious diseases and disruptions to essential health services.
The Global Climate and Health Alliance (GCHA) says governments must urgently cut fossil fuel emissions, increase adaptation finance and strengthen health systems, particularly in countries least responsible for climate change but facing some of its greatest impacts.
“The climate crisis is a health crisis – we are well on our way to surpassing 1.5°C average warming, unless governments take the urgent action required to cut fossil fuel emissions,” said Dr Jeni Miller, Executive Director of the Global Climate and Health Alliance.
Miller said COP31 was a critical opportunity for governments to accelerate climate action and ensure existing commitments were fully implemented and financed.
“The current best-case scenario sees the world take strong action, limit overshoot to 1.8°C, and then bend the temperature curve down from there,” she said.
However, the health impacts of current warming were already significant.
Miller cited the latest Lancet Countdown report, which found that 127.9 million more people experienced moderate or severe food insecurity in 2024 because of heatwaves and droughts, compared with the 1981–2010 average.
The report also found climate change had increased people’s exposure to heatwave days by 83 percent, contributing to heat-related deaths, pregnancy complications and premature births.
Heat exposure also resulted in the loss of 573 billion potential working hours in 2025.
“Without any doubt, climate change is one of the greatest threats to human health we have ever faced,” Miller said.
She warned that the impacts could intensify with the development of a strong El Niño, calling on COP31 delegates to make decisions that protect people’s lives and health.
The Alliance’s policy lead, Jess Beagley, said countries least responsible for greenhouse gas emissions were among those facing the greatest health risks but lacked the resources to strengthen their health systems and communities.
She called on developed countries to provide grant-based and highly concessional climate finance, including tripling adaptation finance to at least US$120 billion well before 2035.
Beagley also urged COP31 delegates to establish a task force to track health-related progress under the Belém Adaptation Indicators, a set of 59 global measures adopted at COP30.
On emissions reduction, she said governments must prioritise renewable energy, electrification and clear national and regional plans to move away from fossil fuels.
“National governments must set out clear national and regional roadmaps for transitions from fossil fuels to protect the health and lives of their population,” she said.
She said developed countries must reduce their emissions faster while providing financial support to developing countries to make the transition.
The Alliance also called for faster reductions in short-lived climate pollutants, including black carbon, ground-level ozone, methane and hydrofluorocarbons, which contribute to warming and respiratory and cardiovascular diseases.
Beagley said the transition away from fossil fuels must also protect public health through a proposed Just Transition Mechanism that includes health experts and health impact assessments.
On climate finance, she warned that relying heavily on private funding could increase debt burdens in developing countries.
“Reliance on private finance risks exacerbating cycles of debt and disease,” she said, citing United Nations data showing 3.4 billion people live in countries that spend more on debt interest than on health or education.
Dr Nova Tebbe, a postdoctoral researcher with the Alliance, said the second Global Stocktake under the Paris Agreement must account for the health consequences of climate inaction and the benefits of climate action.
She called for climate negotiations to be guided by scientific evidence, including the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and Indigenous and local knowledge.
Tebbe also called for stronger measures to address conflicts of interest in the United Nations climate process, saying disclosure alone was not enough to protect its integrity.
The Global Climate and Health Alliance represents more than 300 health professional and civil society organisations and networks working on climate change and health….PACNEWS
FIJI – CLIMATE CHANGE: FIJI TIMES PACNEWS 3: Tue 10 Nov 2026
Fiji Health Ministry braces for climate change — Dr Lalabalavu
SUVA, 10 NOVEMBER 2026 (PACNEWS)—Fiji is taking proactive measures to safeguard its vulnerable healthcare infrastructure against escalating climate-related hazards, including rising sea levels, coastal erosion, flooding, and severe cyclones, says Health and Medical Services Minister Dr Ratu Atonio Lalabalavu.
Responding to questions in Parliament last week from Assistant Minister for Transport Naisa Tuinaceva, Dr Lalabalavu outlined the strategic steps being executed under the national health adaptation plan.
“The Ministry of Health and Medical Services is executing a multi-hazard approach that seamlessly links climate adaptation, disaster risk reduction, and the continuity of care,” he said.
Dr Lalabalavu said that objectives under the Disaster Management Act of 2024 extended beyond protecting physical structures to ensuring essential medical services remain operational during crises.
To improve limited resources, Dr Lalabalavu said the ministry collaborated with the World Health Organisation to establish a national risk profile for assessing staff and facility exposure. Facility-level vulnerability assessments have also been implemented through the SHAPE program alongside KOICA and the WHO.
Dr Lalabalavu highlighted Section 13 of the Fiji National Adaptation Plan, which governs climate-resilient infrastructure design.
Whenever a facility undergoes maintenance or repair, Dr Lalabalavu said the policy mandated building back to a higher resilience standard rather than restoring previous vulnerabilities.
“Climate resilience is an ongoing responsibility, and the ministry remains fully committed to protecting our frontline healthcare workers, our patients and the health services that every Fijian relies on.”
Meanwhile, Nine of the 16 water sources in the Northern division have reached critical level.
Acting Commissioner Northern Apolosi Lewaqai said three other sources were approaching critical levels, while only four remained normal.
Lewaqai said priority areas included Vunika and Taganikula in Macuata, Nabouwalu in Bua, and stressed water systems on Taveuni, particularly Somosomo and Bucalevu.
“The reports indicate serious water-supply pressure across several rural, maritime and reticulated supply areas,” he said.
He said the Fiji Meteorological Service’s climate outlook issued on October 30 forecasted below-normal rainfall for the Northern Division during the November 2026 to January 2027 period.
“The strong El Niño is also likely to continue into early 2027.”
He said this meant communities should prepare for continued water shortages over the coming months.
“There is no definite date for when the dry spell would end.”
He said residents were encouraged to conserve water and use available supplies carefully.
He also urged communities to follow weather updates and water conservation advice as the area remained in the crisis response phase (amber)……PACNEWS
PAC – COP31: PMN PACNEWS 3: Tue 10 Nov 2026
Pacific puts Australia on notice as COP31 opens in Türkiye
ANTALYA, 10 NOVEMBER 2026 (PMN)—The Pacific has arrived at the 31st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change with a clear message for Australia: the region needs more than promises.
As two weeks of climate negotiations begin in Antalya, Australia is taking the lead inside the negotiating rooms with Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen serving as President of Negotiations.
Under a joint Australia-Türkiye arrangement, Türkiye is hosting COP31 while Australia leads the formal negotiations.
For Pacific countries, the stakes could hardly be higher.
Palau’s Ambassador Ilana Seid, chair of the Alliance of Small Island States, says the voice of small island nations must remain central to the talks.
“The voice of SIDS must always remain the ‘moral anchor of this COP process’.”
Pacific voices are already making clear that Australia’s leadership will be closely watched as Canberra continues to approve coal and gas projects.
Litiana Lagibalavu, spokeswoman for the Alliance for Future Generations Fiji, says Pacific countries want Australia to use its position to push for stronger climate action, more accessible finance and protection of the 1.5°C target.
But she says Australia’s credibility will ultimately come down to what it does at home.
“Yes, Australia can position itself and has positioned itself as a president of negotiations at this COP but it is their actions back home that will reflect whether that leadership is of merit, is of substance and is genuine, or whether it’s just performative,” she told AAP.
The warning comes as the world faces a growing risk of temporarily exceeding the 1.5°C warming threshold as Pacific countries push for the overshoot to be as small and short as possible.
Tagaloa Cooper, Director Climate Change Resilience at the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), says there is no room for the Pacific to accept a future beyond 1.5°C as inevitable.
‘The possibility of a 1.5 overshoot, in any amount, is catastrophic for our people, our region, and our communities,” Cooper said.
‘The magnitude and duration of an overshoot must be minimal for many of our communities to have a liveable future. We have to come back to 1.5C rapidly and we have the technologies and capacity to do so. We just need the political will.’
Pacific countries are also pushing for climate finance that is easier to access, more predictable and delivered mainly through grants.
At the same time, they want the ocean to have a bigger place in climate talks, reflecting the central role it plays in Pacific life and the region’s wider climate system.
Lagibalavu says the Pacific’s priorities are not limited to the traditional image of small island states.
“The world likes to call us small island developing states but we like to think of ourselves as large ocean states,’ she said. “Our Pacific Ocean makes up a third of the planet and our ocean regulates the climate of the planet.”
Australia faces a difficult balancing act. The government says it wants to build agreement around electrification, climate finance and the clean energy transition.
Bowen has also acknowledged the scale of the task ahead, with nearly 200 countries expected to negotiate a range of issues.
‘Reaching consensus among nearly 200 countries will not be easy but cooperation remains essential. No country can solve climate change alone and we achieve more when countries work together,” he told a media briefing.
But environmental and Pacific groups say Australia’s domestic fossil fuel decisions could undermine its role at the talks.
Australia’s coal and gas exports have become a major focus with critics pointing to new and expanded projects approved in recent years.
Dr Sindra Sharma, International Policy Lead at the Pacific Islands Climate Action Network (PICAN), says Pacific countries have already made their position clear.
‘The Pacific has been clear about what we need from the world. We need urgent action to keep 1.5°C within reach, a just and equitable phaseout of fossil fuels, and decisions grounded in the best available science.”
For the Pacific, she says COP31 is therefore about more than another round of international promises. It is about whether those promises reach communities already dealing with rising seas, extreme weather, damage to livelihoods and the growing cost of adapting to a crisis they contributed little to creating.
The Pacific heads into the negotiations with three key priorities: keeping 1.5°C within reach, securing climate finance that reaches communities, and putting the ocean at the centre of climate action.
Australia now has a powerful role in deciding how far those priorities travel inside the negotiating rooms.
The United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP31) ends on 20 November…..PACNEWS
FIJI – COURTS: FIJI SUN PACNEWS 3: Tue 10 Nov 2026
Stay bid dismissed in former Fiji Deputy PM Prasad and Waqanika cases
SUVA, 10 NOVEMBER 2026 (FIJI SUN)—The cases against former Fiji deputy Prime Minister Biman Prasad and Suva lawyer Tanya Waqanika will proceed in the Suva Magistrate Court.
This follow’s the dismissal of their application for a stay of proceedings this morning by the High Court in Suva.
Justice Thushara Rajasinghe upheld the Fiji Independent Commission Against Corruption’s (FICAC) authority to investigate and prosecute offences under the Political Parties Act.
Prasad faces one count of failing to comply with disclosure requirements under the Act and an alternative charge of providing false information in a statutory declaration.
Waqanika is charged with publicly indicating opposition to a political party.
The central issue was whether FICAC had jurisdiction under Section 2(a)(c)(i) of the FICAC Act to investigate and prosecute offences arising from obligations imposed on political party office holders.
Justice Rajasinghe rejected the applicants’ interpretation, ruling that the phrase “pertaining to any election” under the FICAC Act should be interpreted broadly.
He said an election involved the entire electoral process, not just polling day, and that political parties played a fundamental role in that process.
The court found that disclosure requirements under the Political Parties Act were intended to promote integrity, transparency and accountability within political parties.
It said registered political parties were integral to the electoral system and parliamentary representation, making breaches of their disclosure obligations sufficiently connected to the electoral process.
In Waqanika’s case, the court found that public support for or opposition to an election candidate brought a public officer’s conduct within the electoral process.
Under Section 14(7) of the Political Parties Act, public officers convicted of breaching the relevant provisions face a fine of up to $10,000 (US$5,000) or imprisonment for up to five years.
Justice Rajasinghe concluded that failing to comply with disclosure requirements or providing false information under the Political Parties Act amounted to illegal conduct pertaining to an election under the FICAC Act.
However, the court found that Section 2(a)(i) of the FICAC Act did not apply because the Political Parties Act did not expressly confer that authority on FICAC…..PACNEWS
FIJI – WEATHER WATCH/ELNINO: FIJI SUN PACNEWS 3: Tue 10 Nov 2026
Four Fiji weather stations record driest October in history
NADI, 10 NOVEMBER 2026 (FIJI SUN) —Four long-established weather stations in Fiji recorded their lowest October rainfall totals on record as prolonged El Niño-related dry conditions continued to affect communities across the country.
The Fiji Meteorological Service’s October 2026 Climate Summary, issued on 06 November, revealed that Nadi Airport, Yasawa-i-Rara, Viwa and Rotuma recorded their lowest October rainfall totals since observations began at their respective stations.
Nadi Airport received just 0.3 millimetres of rain during the entire month, breaking its previous October record of 1.8mm recorded in 1987. Rainfall records at the station date back to 1942.
Yasawa-i-Rara recorded only 0.4mm, compared with its previous October low of 26.3mm in 2021.
Viwa received 0.6mm, breaking its previous record of 1.9mm set in 2025.
Rotuma recorded 29.2mm, its lowest October total since records began in 1912. Its previous record was 80mm in 1914.
The Fiji Meteorological Service reported that all 27 stations assessed received less than half their usual October rainfall.
Of these, 26 recorded well below normal rainfall, while Monasavu recorded below normal rainfall.
Tavua received no rainfall during October, while Rarawai Mill in Ba recorded 1.1mm and Lautoka Mill received just 3mm.
The report attributed the widespread suppression of rainfall to conditions typically associated with El Niño.
Water supplies under pressure
The prolonged dry spell has affected water availability across the Western and Northern divisions and maritime communities.
The report highlighted declining river and stream levels, reduced water pressure and increasing concerns about reservoir storage.
According to the report, Vaturu Dam was at 68 percent of its maximum storage capacity on 23 October.
The Water Authority of Fiji (WAF) had urged residents and businesses in Nadi and Lautoka to conserve water because of declining inflows and increased evaporation.
The authority also warned of possible supply disruptions and water rationing.
Emergency water deliveries were carried out in affected communities across the Western, Northern and Central divisions, including the Yasawa Group, Malolo, Cikobia and Yanuca Island.
Water supplies were also delivered to schools and healthcare facilities.
The dry conditions have also affected agricultural activities, particularly vegetable and sugarcane farming.
According to the report, declining soil moisture and water availability have caused crop stress and made land preparation difficult.
Some farmers reported crops withering before harvest, reducing their income.
Dry vegetation has also increased the risk of bush and plantation fires, with numerous incidents reported in the Western
The report also highlighted concerns about electricity generation if dry conditions continue.
Energy Fiji Limited has warned that continued dry weather could make electricity rationing necessary, with El Niño conditions likely to persist into 2027.
The Fiji Meteorological Service said prolonged dry conditions continued to affect communities and several sectors across the country…PACNEWS
PACNEWS BIZ
VAN – BUDGET: PACNEWS PACNEWS BIZ: Tue 10 Nov 2026
Vanuatu unveils record VT93.1 billion budget
PORT VILA, 10 NOVEMBER 2026 (PACNEWS) — Vanuatu has presented its largest-ever national budget of VT93.1 billion(US$775.8 million, with Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Johnny Koanapo saying the 2027 spending plan will focus on building the country’s economic independence and sovereign capabilities.
Koanapo delivered the budget during Monday’s Budget Appropriation Session of Parliament, describing it as the next phase of the Government’s economic transformation programme ahead of Vanuatu’s 50th anniversary of independence in 2030.
At VT93.1 billion(US$775.8 million, the budget is the largest in the country’s 46-year history, according to the Government.
“Last year, I opened the first chapter in a new story for this nation. A story focused on the economic transformation of our country, where the heroes of the story are our people.
“Today, we begin the next chapter. One where economic transformation enables the construction of sovereign capabilities,” Koanapo said.
The 2027 budget places emphasis on strengthening key sectors, including finance, aviation, ports, agriculture, tourism, deep-sea cables and energy, with the Government seeking to integrate these areas to improve national capacity and economic security.
The Government says the budget is designed to strengthen economic resilience, attract strategic investment and improve the delivery of essential services to communities.
Koanapo’s budget announcement comes amid global economic uncertainty, with the International Monetary Fund projecting global economic growth of 3.1 percent and inflation of 4.7 percent, according to the Government’s statement.
The Government says the spending plan reflects a commitment to prudent management of public resources while positioning Vanuatu as an attractive investment destination in the Pacific.
It will also release further details of the budget across individual sectors in the coming days, outlining the planned allocations and their expected benefits for the public.
Koanapo said the country’s economic transformation depended on the contribution of people across all sectors, including farmers, tradespeople, workers, small business owners and young entrepreneurs.
“If you can fix things, make things, and build things for our country, you become the heroes in this story,” he said.
The Government has framed the 2027 budget as part of its longer-term development plans leading up to Vanuatu’s Golden Jubilee in 2030 and beyond…..PACNEWS
PACNEWS In Focus
The views expressed in PACNEWS are those of agencies contributing articles and do not necessarily those of PINA and/or PACNEWS
Billions came fast for the fuel crisis – the Pacific still waits for climate finance
The Cook Islands’ prime minister sets three tests for COP31: the Pacific shouldn’t pay for disasters it didn’t cause.
By Mark Brown, Cook Islands PM
RAROTONGA, 10 NOVEMBER 2026 (THE INTERPTER)–The numbers tell an unfair story. The Cook Islands and Pacific Islands countries produce less than 0.03 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions yet carry some of the most severe and immediate climate impacts on earth.
Sea level rise, intensifying cyclones, saltwater intrusion, droughts and other extreme weather events impact livelihoods. A single cyclone can cost 20% of a country’s GDP in one event, reversing years of development progress and straining budgets already stretched thin.
Estimates from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) (Opens in new window) show that the Pacific needs at least US$3.3 billion a year in climate adaptation finance. Yet the Pacific receives less than 3 percent of global climate finance.
In October, Tropical Cyclone Wati arrived before our cyclone season had even officially begun. Aitutaki, one of our most visited islands, felt the full force of the storm, and our other Southern Groups islands, including Rarotonga, felt its effects. Our people’s preparation made the difference, but Wati is another sign that the weather patterns we have long relied on are becoming harder to predict. With a very strong El Niño underway, we do not expect it to be the last.
For the Cook Islands and our Pacific neighbours, the question is no longer whether disasters will come, but whether we can recover and build resilience before the next one.As leaders head to COP31 in Türkiye, the major emitters should remember that Pacific communities did not create this crisis.
The countries most responsible need to step up. Our countries need climate finance that is sufficient, predictable and grant-based, because we cannot borrow our way to resilience. The Paris Agreement already recognises the special circumstances of small island developing states and commits to simplified access for us (Articles 9.4 and 9.9). It is time that commitment showed up in practice. Keeping 1.5°C within reach depends on it.
At the Pre-COP in Fiji in October, I put a simple point to our partners. Delay does not remove the cost. It transfers it: to our budgets, to our public servants, and to families who pay for time they did not waste. If the world can mobilise hundreds of billions in a few months to counter the impact of the global fuel crisis, why can we not place the same urgency and commitment on climate finance? Urgency is a two-way street.
I set three tests for the new climate finance access plan proposed there. Put a clock on access: providers should publish decision timeframes, explain delays and report how long it takes to reach first disbursement. Stop making administrations prove the same things repeatedly. And finance the way our islands work, through long-term programmes, and grants where more debt would undo the resilience we are building. At COP31, tell us what you will change. A year later, show us what changed.
The Green Climate Fund is our biggest climate partner. Of the more than US$109 million in climate finance the Cook Islands has secured since 2018, around US$72 million came through the Fund, including a US$44.2 million program that puts money directly into households, businesses and community groups to build back after cyclones. A strong third replenishment of the Fund, with grants protected, is one of our key asks on the road to COP31.
The Pacific is not waiting for the world to act. Alongside the Green Climate Fund, the Pacific Resilience Facility (PRF) is one of the two vehicles our countries rely on. Endorsed by Pacific Leaders when the Cook Islands hosted the Forum in 2023, it is the first Pacific-led, owned and managed, climate and disaster resilience financing facility, and it gets resources to communities for preparedness and adaptation without adding to national debt.
The PRF is already making a difference, from the restoration of a traditional taro patch by a women’s group in Palau, to rainwater harvesting in the Marshall Islands and Nauru, youths restoring native coastal trees in Tonga, food security in Niue, and community sanitation in Solomon Islands. These first community grants show what a facility designed by and for the Pacific can do: get money to the people on the frontline.
But we have a long way to go. Pledges now total US$190 million, against an initial target of US$500 million by 2026, and a long-term goal of US$1.5 billion. That is modest next to what our region needs, but every dollar counts.
At the Pre-COP, Leaders adopted the Taku Pakasoa Declaration. It calls for a substantial increase in climate finance and reform of the international financial architecture, so that finance, including grant-based and concessional finance is delivered at the speed and scale required, particularly for small islands and least developed countries.
The Cook Islands supports this call as we head to Antalya, and for countries like ours, grant finance must come first.
COP31 must be an implementation COP. That means commitments already made reaching the communities most affected, a strong replenishment of the Green Climate Fund, and capital for Pacific-led mechanisms such as the Pacific Resilience Facility.
We will report on our delivery. We ask those who control the funds to report on theirs. Think of climate finance as an investment in our future. For partners looking at the PRF, this is the moment to invest for our futures…..PACNEWS
The views expressed in PACNEWS are those of agencies contributing articles and do not necessarily those of PINA and/or PACNEWS
The Pacific nations have done their part on climate change. Now COP31 must deliver
By Dr Saia Ma’u Piukala, Beate Trankmann
MANILA/ANTALYA, 10 NOVEMBER 2026 (WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM)— At Pre-COP31 in Fiji and Tuvalu, the Pacific showed the world what urgency looks like in addressing the serious health impacts of the climate crisis. COP31 must follow suit and deliver for people and the planet
This year, the world witnessed devastating floods from a rock-ice avalanche and glacier collapse in Nepal, while Western Europe experienced its warmest summer on record. The loss of life was immense.
Also this year, super-typhoon Sinlaku tore through the Federated States of Micronesia, damaging or destroying many health dispensaries and contaminating drinking water on the worst-hit islands. Fallen trees blocked one mother’s road to hospital while she was in labour. Her baby did not survive.
From country to country, region to region, we may weather the same storm, but we are not in the same boat. For the Pacific island nations, who collectively account for less than 0.03% of global emissions, climate change is already a health emergency.
Rising seas push salt into the wells families drink from and the soil where food is grown, turning drinking water into a slow poison for pregnant women and their unborn babies. Land that once fed generations is turning barren. Over 60% of hospitals reviewed in 14 countries sit within 500 metres of the sea or a river, placing critical infrastructure on the frontlines of climate change.
The Pacific has not waited for the rest of the world to act. At Pre-COP31 in Fiji and Tuvalu in early October, leaders brought a shared position on keeping 1.5°C within reach, protecting the ocean and unlocking finance, including their own money: Fiji pledged US$10 million and Solomon Islands US$1.1 million to the Pacific Resilience Facility. COP31 President Murat Kurum warned that promises do not hold back the sea or shield homes from the fire: “Only delivery can save us.”
Pacific countries have long been leading the way, turning climate-health solutions into more resilient communities.
Across Kiribati, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and Vanuatu, WHO and UNDP are working with ministries of health and other stakeholders to make hospitals more climate-resilient and to build health early-warning systems. In Vanuatu, the health ministry has rebuilt two health centres on Santo with cyclone-resistant roofs, serving about 9,000 community members. In Tuvalu, the government-led Coastal Adaptation Project, implemented with UNDP and partners, has created more than 15 hectares of elevated land on Funafuti, designed to remain above projected sea levels beyond 2100. That means flood-safe ground for homes and essential services alike.
The same commitment extends to energy. Pacific ministers have long been committed to a fully renewable, fossil-fuel-free region but have not yet been able to break the dependency on diesel that still generates 80 to 95 percent of grid power in four Pacific countries. This year’s oil shock was a particularly strong reminder how fragile energy security is in the sub-region and that the energy transition takes time and continued investments, with some countries left with just 20 days of fuel. When fuel runs out, so does power for vaccine fridges and night-time births.
There are signs of hope, however. In Solomon Islands, where only one in six people have grid power, solar power installed at seven clinics with WHO and Japan’s support means health workers who previously relied on torches and kerosene lamps can now attend emergency procedures and births in well-lit rooms. The challenge now is scale. At a dialogue WHO and UNDP convened in Nadi on powering the Pacific, the evidence was stark: Some 1.5 million Pacific Islanders still lack grid power, and pooling small projects into larger portfolios could unlock the finance to reach them.
But Pacific leadership cannot substitute for a functional global system. Official development assistance is projected to fall for a third consecutive year in 2026, with health facing the steepest sectoral cuts, falling to its lowest in almost two decades. At the same time, reported international commitments for climate and health rose from less than US$1 billion in 2018 to US$7.1 billion in 2022. The challenge is not simply increasing commitment in international climate finance, but ensuring that countries can quickly access this finance at scale to make a difference to communities on the ground.
Following the Pacific’s lead, three practical shifts can accelerate delivery:
*First, invest in country-led priorities and the people who deliver them. International partners must align behind national and community priorities, strengthening the workforce and institutions needed to turn plans into action. Across the Pacific, capacity constraints remain significant: More than 1,000 nurses left five Pacific countries in a single year, while understaffed ministries continue to navigate complex financing requirements alongside essential service delivery.
*Second, make climate finance faster and easier to access. As Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown told Pre-COP31, urgency “is a two-way street”. Funders must publish clear decision timelines, eliminate duplicate paperwork and prioritize grants where additional debt would undermine resilience. They should also support the Access to Finance Statement and Action Plan launched at Pre-COP31 and turn Pacific Resilience Facility pledges into contributions towards its US$500 million target while supporting countries in designing investment-ready projects.
*Third, we must continue to strengthen multilateralism. The international community has invested in building a multilateral system precisely to address complex challenges that cross borders. Now is not the time to retreat from that system, but to strengthen it further – ensuring it responds with the urgency, coordination and effectiveness that this crisis demands.
COP31 in Antalya, Türkiye, opens on 9 November with a dedicated Health Day – an opportunity for global focus on the health impacts of the climate crisis. The test is whether promises become hospitals that withstand the next cyclone, children who can access life-saving treatment, and health workers who can reach communities cut off by floods.
The Pacific has shown the world what unity and urgency look like. Now the world must answer.
Dr Saia Ma’u Piukala is Regional Director for the Western Pacific, World Health Organisation (WHO)
Beate Trankmann is Deputy Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific (RBAP), UNDP
PACNEWS DIGEST
The views expressed in PACNEWS are those of agencies contributing articles and do not necessarily those of PINA and/or PACNEWS
Locally led climate finance needs apprenticeships, not more readiness workshops
By Jale Samuwai, Phd and Aminisitai Delaisania
SUVA, 10 NOVEMBER 2026 (ISLANDS BUSINESS)—‘WHAT does accountability mean?’
A volunteer treasurer in Fiji asked us this in the opening minutes of a mentoring session we had planned as a quick refresher on financial management.
We had assumed the basics were in place.
For that organisation, they were not.
The question points to a gap in how climate finance reaches communities.
Ahead of COP31 in Antalya, the Pacific has again put finance at the centre.
The Taku Pakasoa Declaration, adopted at the Pacific pre-COP in Fiji in October, calls for a substantial increase in climate finance, particularly for adaptation in capacity-constrained countries.
But finance reaches a village only through an organisation or institution that can receive, record and report on it.
Our argument is that the usual approach of getting organisations ‘ready’ before they receive money, fits poorly with how community organisations build durable capability.
They build it by using finance, with someone alongside them.
The question therefore for locally led finance discussion in the region is not whether community organisations are ready for more climate finance, but whether the way finance is delivered leaves them more capable after each investment than before.
The gap between rhetoric and delivery is wide. IIED’s 2025 tracking study found that, even in the best year, less than 0.5% of reported climate finance could be deemed locally led, despite more than 130 governments and institutions endorsing the locally led adaptation principles.
Developing countries need an estimated US$310–365 billion to adapt, yet only US$26 billion in adaptation finance was available in 2023. More money will not fix the last mile on its own.
The common conventional response to weak local capacity in the region is a generic readiness model i.e. a one or two day national workshop, one slide deck, then funding for those deemed ready.
The approach assumes basic systems exist. In the Pacific, many frontline organisations are volunteer-run, with treasurers who keep the books after family and community work, and with largely paper-based records.
They hold community trust, but often lack the administrative scaffolding that donors take for granted.
We see this clearly in the UNDP Small Grants Initiative (SGI), which funds 25 local civil society organisations across Fiji, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Tonga and Tuvalu. The Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), where we work, is its capacity-building partner.
Our baseline showed highly uneven starting points, so we used it to tailor support rather than as a test. From February 2026 to date, instead of national workshops, we ran sequenced online mentoring, mostly one-to-one or in small groups, with each session tied to a grantee’s live project.
We have completed 27 sessions so far, and support continues as projects are implemented till the end date of the program in May 2027.
The SGI results are early but instructive.
In Fiji, nine sessions with eight organisations moved participants from unfamiliar jargon to raising payment vouchers, filing records and preparing financial reports, with the first batch submitted in June.
In Solomon Islands, three sessions on proposal development helped a local community in the Temotu province secure new funding from outside the UNDP system.
In Vanuatu, a grantee has begun drafting a fundraising strategy after three sessions on fundaising.
So why does this work? Because support is intentionally built into delivery.
It creates a safe space for questions that feel personal: asking what a voucher is, or who should sign off a payment, is hard in a room of peers and donors.
It allows for demonstration of routine behaviour rather than describing it, with one transaction raised, approved, recorded and filed from start to finish.
And it supplies tools such as receipt books, cash ledgers and filing materials as onboarding deliverables rather than assumed assets.
With this approach the grant does two jobs at once.
It finances a community outcome, and it provides the live setting in which organisational capability is built.
That is closer to an apprenticeship than a training course, and to what the locally led adaptation principles mean by patient funding.
This approach also suggest the need to treat organisational capability as infrastructure.
Climate finance primarily pays for the physical infrastructure such as solar systems, water supply, coastal protection etc.
Locally led finance also depends on organisational infrastructure, including financial controls, record keeping, procurement, reporting and governance.
If community organisations are part of how locally led climate finance is delivered, investing in their capability should therefore not to be treated as an overhead.
It is a critical part of the infrastructure needed to deliver it.
That infrastructure is neither cheap nor fast.
It needs diagnostic skill, tailored materials, mentors’ time, devices and data, and patient follow-up.
Against a small grant it will look expensive. But a grant that cannot be properly acquitted costs more, in late reports, lost trust and stalled projects, and unlike a workshop the investment stays with the organisation when the project ends.
The SGI program is still under way, so the real test is whether these organisations manage their next grant, from any funder, with less help than this one.
This argument matters for the Pacific Resilience Facility (PRF), which the Taku Pakasoa Declaration commends.
It will deliver small grants to communities and has US$173 million pledged with a further US$327 million to raise.
Other parties have been invited to associate themselves with the declaration
We therefore suggest three ways to give its call for speed and scale practical meaning.
First, when announcing contributions to the PRF and other regional or national funds, donors should signal that a share will pay for multi-year mentoring built into grants, not a separate readiness programme.
Second, the emerging action plan on access to finance should let support be sequenced to each organisation’s starting point.
Third, funders should work towards a common capability baseline, starting from existing ones such as the SGI’s, so organisations are assessed once and evidence on what lifts capability, and at what cost, can be compared.
Pacific community organisations are not short of commitment.
They are short of the organisational infrastructure that lets commitment count in a grant system.
If the Pacific and its partners use COP31 to insist that every locally led investment leaves stronger institutions behind, the declaration’s call for speed and scale will have something solid to stand on…PACNEWS
The views expressed in PACNEWS are those of agencies contributing articles and do not necessarily those of PINA and/or PACNEWS
From a ship frozen into Arctic ice, a warning to world leaders: Trust the science
ANTAYLIA, 10 NOVEMBER 2026 (UN NEWS CENTRE) —-Drifting through the polar darkness, a team of scientists is documenting a rapidly changing Arctic. As sea ice retreats and oil tankers move in, a conversation with the UN chief reveals why the battle for climate science matters far beyond the North Pole.
Somewhere in the darkness of the Arctic Ocean, 12 people and a dog named Örkki are drifting right now across the frozen sea, with little say over where they are going.
Their home for the winter is Tara Polar Station, a 26-metre-long French research vessel that departed Norway in August with an unusual purpose: to become trapped in ice.
Locked into a floating sheet of sea ice above more than 2,500 metres of water, the station moves wherever the winds and currents carry it. There is no destination to steer towards, and in the middle of the polar night, no sunlight to mark the passing days.
The team is taking part in Tara Polaris I, the first of 10 planned expeditions in a 20-year international programme to study the transformation of the Arctic Ocean. What they are already witnessing has caught the attention of UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
What happens in the Arctic doesn’t stay in the Arctic.
Ahead of the COP31 UN climate conference, the UN chief spoke this week by video link to the expedition’s chief scientist, Maxime Geoffroy, asking what message he should take to world leaders about an Arctic which is warming three to four times faster than the global average.
“I think that, unfortunately, the political leadership in this world is not yet entirely aware of how serious the situation is,” the UN chief said.
Geoffroy’s message was simple: “What happens in the Arctic doesn’t stay in the Arctic.”
The changes unfolding beneath the expedition’s feet could have far-reaching consequences for the world’s oceans, climate and biodiversity, he warned.
A disappearing world
The mission draws inspiration from Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen, who famously allowed his vessel to freeze into Arctic sea ice in 1893 and drift with the currents.
More than 130 years later, Geoffroy and his colleagues are following in his footsteps, with one striking difference: there is considerably less ice in their way.
The expedition spent three weeks navigating along Russia’s northern coast before heading into the Arctic ice pack in search of a suitable floe (a large flat piece of floating ice) for its research station.
“We reached 82 degrees north just through leads,” Geoffroy said, referring to channels of open water between the floes.
When Nansen made his voyage, his vessel became trapped in ice hundreds of kilometres farther south. Now, open stretches of water allowed Geoffroy’s team to travel much deeper before becoming icebound.
But the retreating ice is only part of the story.
The planet’s ‘mirror’ is melting
The Secretary-General asked Geoffroy about one of his greatest fears for the future:
“One of the things that has scared me most was the perspective that in a number of years we might have no ice in the Arctic, during summer.”
Arctic sea ice plays a vital role in regulating the Earth’s temperature and keeping the planet cool.
“This large ice sheet on which we are drifting, when the sun comes back, acts as a mirror,” the scientist explained.
Like a giant reflector, the white ice sends much of the Sun’s energy back into space. But as it melts, the darker ocean beneath absorbs that heat instead, warming the water and accelerating the loss of ice.
The consequences are far reaching. Ocean currents carry heat far beyond the North Pole, influencing marine ecosystems and climate patterns across the planet.
As Arctic ice disappears, these circulation systems could be disrupted, with consequences scientists are still struggling to predict.
“We have models, but we don’t know when, how, and what will be the exact impacts,” Geoffroy acknowledged.
The central Arctic remains poorly studied. Firsthand observations are crucial to improving climate models and predicting what lies ahead.
From ancient life to an uncertain future
But the team’s questions go far beyond climate forecasts, reaching into one of humanity’s oldest mysteries: the origins of life.
Could life on Earth have begun in sea ice?
Geoffroy pointed to organisms that survive extreme cold thanks to antifreeze proteins, and to the intriguing hypothesis that frozen environments may have played a role in life’s earliest beginnings.
Other researchers on board are tackling a more practical mystery: how many fish live in the central Arctic Ocean?
Despite growing commercial interest, researchers still don’t know whether its waters could sustain fisheries without threatening fragile ecosystems.
“To understand the loss of biodiversity and protection of biodiversity, you need to know what is there,” the scientist explained.
The research programme brings together 80 scientists and some 220 research protocols to investigate everything from how marine life responds to warming to the ocean’s role in storing carbon.
The Secretary-General, a longstanding advocate for ocean protection, smiled when he heard Mr. Geoffroy describe the international effort as a “miniature United Nations for Arctic science”.
But while researchers race to understand the disappearing ice, others are already looking to profit from its retreat.
New shipping routes, new battles
On their way north, the scientists encountered another unmistakable sign of change: oil tankers navigating the Northeast Passage along Russia’s Arctic coast.
The retreating ice makes the route more accessible but increases the risks of pollution and accidents.
“I can guarantee you that we saw a lot of oil tankers going through that passage,” Geoffroy told the Secretary-General. “So, it’s not just a forecast. It is happening.”
An oil spill in these waters could be disastrous. Petroleum can become trapped in the ice for long periods, threatening marine life and making cleanup exceptionally difficult.
Commercial interests are not the only ones turning their attention north. Guterres pointed to tensions surrounding Greenland and the growing strategic importance of the Arctic, warning that countries increasingly viewing the region through a security lens could threaten the very environment scientists are trying to understand.
For Mr. Geoffroy, whose expedition brings together researchers from 12 countries, the question was whether science could help bridge those geopolitical divides.
“I think that is a central battle we have now. The battle for truth and the battle for science,” the UN chief replied.
The Secretary-General accused powerful economic interests, particularly those linked to fossil fuels, of seeking to obscure scientific evidence and undermine its role in public debate.
“We went from the climate denial to the climate […] delay and ‘green hushing’,” Mr. Geoffroy observed, lamenting how climate action has slipped down political agendas despite decades of scientific warnings.
A sense of urgency, and fury
Before ending their conversation, the UN chief invited Geoffroy to imagine addressing world leaders gathering at COP31.
The scientist’s message was clear:
“The findings of this science […] need to be trusted, they need to be followed and they need to be supported.”
For Guterres, the warning struck a personal chord. He recalled visits to Antarctica and the Himalayas, where he had witnessed glaciers retreating.
Those experiences, combined with the continued refusal of some political leaders to act, had left him with more than concern.
“All these things I think have created in me a sense of urgency and, to be honest, also a sense of fury,” he admitted. “It’s an existential battle.”
In the Arctic, the researchers will continue their slow drift through the polar darkness, gathering evidence from a region changing before their eyes.
Örkki the dog will keep watch for polar bears while the team measures the ice, water and atmosphere. Thousands of kilometres away, world leaders will gather in Antalya, Türkiye at COP31 to negotiate how to confront the climate crisis.
And while the scientists have no control over where the ice carries them, the future they are documenting remains a matter of human choice.
PACNEWS DIGEST
The views expressed in PACNEWS are those of agencies contributing articles and do not necessarily those of PINA and/or PACNEWS
The Family Planning to Stay Deserves More Than a Climate Headline
By Douglas Vandergraph
MAJURO, 10 NOVEMBER 2026 (PACNEWS)—A photograph of a Pacific shoreline can carry a powerful warning about environmental change. Yet the family who lives beside that shoreline experiences much more than a warning. They make decisions about work, school, food, travel and the future they hope to build. In the Marshall Islands, those choices deserve attention beyond the moment when a climate story is first published.
The international conversation often treats island communities as symbols of a global problem. This can help draw attention to legitimate concerns, but it can also flatten the people being discussed. A resident may care deeply about protecting the coast and still have immediate questions about a road, a classroom, a water source or the cost of getting supplies. These are not lesser questions. They are the substance of life that any long-term plan is meant to protect.
The family planning to stay should have a genuine place in decisions affecting its community. So should the family considering a move. People can share a love for their home and reach different conclusions about their next steps. Dignity means resisting the temptation to praise one choice and condemn the other. The responsibility of public institutions is to provide clear information and workable choices, not to assign moral labels to families facing uncertainty.
Faith gives me a reason to value those choices. My Christian conviction is that a person’s worth is not determined by economic strength, visibility or the size of a community. The neighbor who cannot travel to a consultation is as deserving of an answer as the person who can speak confidently at a conference. This is a principle that readers of many beliefs can embrace without adopting my faith.
What could that look like in practice? A coastal or infrastructure project could explain how community feedback will affect the plan. If a suggestion cannot be adopted, the responsible organisation could say why. Information should be available in terms that residents can use, not only in the language of technical reports. The effects on school access, ordinary transport and essential services should be considered alongside larger construction goals.
Local knowledge is central. People who know the conditions of a particular shoreline or passage may identify patterns that do not appear in a brief visit. Their experience complements scientific measurement; it should neither be romanticized as infallible nor dismissed as unqualified. A good conversation allows specialists and residents to test their understanding against one another.
It is also important to follow through after a project begins. Has the repair held? Can an elder reach the changed entrance? Does a student still have a reliable way to class? A good report should include the response to such questions, including honest acknowledgment where resources are limited. Rebuilding trust is often a matter of returning to a small concern after the cameras have gone.
Regional media can help by distinguishing what is known from what is proposed. They can seek local voices rather than using island communities as the background for somebody else’s argument. An opinion article like this one should also be clear about its limits: it offers an ethical perspective, not a claim to have interviewed residents or assessed a particular project in the field.
The Marshall Islands have an important story to tell the world, but the story is not confined to global climate negotiations. It includes ordinary love for family, the responsibilities of neighbors and the daily courage involved in planning a future without guarantees.
The question that deserves repeating is simple: when decisions are made, will the people who intend to live with their consequences be heard? A compassionate and responsible answer would strengthen community life regardless of which path a particular family ultimately chooses….PACNEWS
Douglas Vandergraph writes about Christian faith, peace and everyday human dignity. https://douglasvandergraph.com/
