Pacific nations declare ‘climate emergency’ and promise closer security coordination

Leaders from across the South Pacific have called for urgent global action on climate change following a four-day Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) meeting in Fiji, where they also pledged more unity in addressing regional security issues in an apparent rebuke to China’s push for a region-wide security deal.

In their first face-to-face meetings since 2019, representatives from 16 of the body’s 17 members said the Pacific faces a climate emergency that threatens the livelihoods, safety and well-being of its people and of its ecosystems.