Pacific

Tuvalu is highly susceptible to climate change
UNDP/Luke McPake

‘Don’t forget’ to let activists know their work counts, urges youth climate adviser 

25 September 2020
Interviews

With high level meetings on-going to address the climate and biodiversity crisis centre stage at UN Headquarters, one of the Secretary-General’s Youth Advisory Group members is urging world leaders to make sure their decisions get back to the people that help shape policy on the ground. 

Ernest Gibson is co-coordinator for 350 Fiji, a regional youth-led climate change network in the Pacific, driven by young climate leaders, and he told Julia Dean of our UN Country Team in Australia, it was important to let groups like his, know that they’ve made a difference. 

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5'13"
The low-lying island nation, Tuvalu, in the Pacific Ocean is particularly susceptible to higher sea levels caused by climate change.
UNDP Tuvalu/Aurélia Rusek

Solidarity through song: Tongan musician hails Pacific Unite Concert

13 August 2020
Interviews

Pacific communities are coming together through song and music in just a few hours’ time, to help beat back the coronavirus pandemic and assist vulnerable nations in the region build a better future. The Pacific Unite Concert, on Saturday, will be paying tribute to essential workers for their lifesaving effort, and supporting all islanders to play their part in preventing transmission.

One of the musicians taking part is Mia Kami, from Tonga but based in Fiji, who’s also a climate change activist with the 350.org international grassroots movement. 

 

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5'30"
Medical supplies have been flown out of Fiji as part of the UN's response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the Pacific Ocean.
WFP/Allan Stephen

COVID-19: Humanitarian air service to fill ‘crucial gap’ in the Pacific

6 August 2020
Interviews

A new humanitarian air service launched on Thursday will boost COVID-19 response in the Pacific, according to Governments and the World Food Programme (WFP).

Julia Dean of the UN Country Team in Australia spoke to Jo Pilgrim, Director of WFP’s Pacific Multi-Country Office, who explained how the flights will fill a “crucial gap” during the pandemic.

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7'43"
A midwife in Addis Ababa examines a mother and her newborn.
© Ethiopian Midwives Associatio

‘Stronger response’ key, to build a safer and more stable future: Guterres

3 June 2020
Health

UN chief António Guterres is calling for greater unity and solidarity to defeat COVID-19 and build a better world in the wake of the global pandemic.

A 16-year-old child swims in the flooded area of Aberao village in Kiribati. The Pacific island is one of the countries worst affected by sea-level rise.
UNICEF/Sokhin

‘Save Tuvalu; save the world’; UN chief echoes rallying cry from front lines of global climate emergency

29 May 2019
Climate and Environment

Further inaction on climate change is “simply not an option”, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said on Wednesday in an opinion piece where he called for “rapid and deep change in how we do business, generate power, build cities and feed the world.” 
 

Local school children water the vegetable garden at the Ban Bor Primary School in Xay District, Lao People's Democratic Republic. 14 May 2019.
FAO/Manan Vatsyayana

Thursday’s Daily Brief: Ebola in DR Congo, malnutrition in Laos, baby health, support for Sahel force, #ClimateAction

16 May 2019
Climate and Environment

On Thursday, we cover: more support needed for Sahel force, fears in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) as Ebola response funding dwindles; food and nutrition concerns in Laos; an update on low birthweight babies across the world; and the UN chief’s trip for climate action in the Pacific continues.

In Samoa, rising sea levels and storms affect the country’s fragile agricultural sector, and the Red Cross Society runs a vegetable garden project to teach communities agriculture best practices.
IFRC/Benoit Matsha-Carpentier

Monday’s Daily Brief: #ClimateAction for the Pacific, Gaza blockade, attack in Burkina Faso

13 May 2019
Climate and Environment

This Monday, top stories are: Gaza's aid dependency due to the ongoing blockade; a special focus on climate change and its impact on islands and people of the Pacific; UN condemnation after a deadly attack in Burkina Faso.  

Children in a Samoan village gathered at a safe location during a disaster drill.
UNDP Samoa

Paradise islands of Pacific increasingly vulnerable to climate change, as UN boosts resilience

10 May 2019
Climate and Environment

A seeming paradise, life on the Pacific islands is threatened by climate change and extreme weather, frustrated by remoteness and a lack of educational and economic opportunities. Secretary-General António Guterres begins a visit to the region this weekend, where he will speak to people living on some of the islands and see for himself how the UN is helping to mitigate some of the biggest issues. 

Simona Marinescu, United Nations resident coordinator for the 28 islands that make up Samoa, Cook Islands, Niue and Tokelau.
UN News/Paulina Greer

UN Coordinator in South Pacific highlights need to boost funding against climate change

10 May 2019
Interviews

The greatest threat to the traditional way of life across the Pacific region, is climate change, says Simona Marinescu, UN Resident Coordinator for the 28 islands that make up Samoa, Cook Islands, Niue and Tokelau. Paulina Greer spoke to Ms. Marinescu, on a recent visit to UN Headquarters in New York.

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9'43"
Harvesting rice in Viet Nam. Global rice consumption trends are rising.
FAO/Hoang Dinh Nam

Climate change threatens agricultural trade in Pacific Rim economies, UN agency warns

25 August 2017
With global warming expected to significantly impact future yields in countries located closer to the equator, the United Nations agriculture agency is calling on Asia-Pacific economies to take a leading role in adaptation and mitigation.