islandNews
- 15 jul 2011
- Misery Follows as Somalis Try to Flee Hunger
They are fleeing one of the worst droughts in Somalia in 60 years and many have walked for weeks through an anarchic landscape replete with bandits and militants but little food... | more
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- A Look Into the Ocean's Future
A new report concludes that the oceans are approaching irreversible, potentially catastrophic change... | more
- 1 jun 2011
- The New Geopolitics of Food
From the Middle East to Madagascar, high prices are spawning land grabs and ousting dictators. Welcome to the 21st-century food wars... | more
- 6 may 2011
- Climate change disrupting food production
The world's rising temperature is slowing production of major food crops, and as global warming continues, the trend will significantly disrupt the economies of many countries... | more
- 4 may 2011
- Calls for political action on Arctic climate change: scientists
"The planet is going to be roasted by 2100" | more
- 1 april 2011
- The Acid Sea
The carbon dioxide we pump into the air is seeping into the oceans and slowly acidifying them. One hundred years from now, will oysters, mussels, and coral reefs survive? | more
- 17 february 2011
- Pacific food prices rise sharply
New research shows food prices in the region climbed 100 per cent over the past three years... | more
- 16 february 2011
- Security Council Debates Links Between Security and Development
Fiji called for more support to affected countries to build resilience to the impacts of climate change while working for the rapid reduction of global carbon dioxide emissions... | more
- 15 february 2011
- UN Climate Chief Warns Warming Can Cause Conflict
Christiana Figueres, head of the U.N. climate secretariat, warned of the destabilizing effects created by growing water stress, declining crop yields and damage from extreme storms in some of the world's poorest countries... | more
- 11 january 2011
- Floods threaten Australia's Great Barrier Reef
Australia's devastating floods are flushing toxic, pesticide-laden sediment into the Great Barrier Reef... | more
- 6 january 2011
- Impact of Palau Shark Sanctuary starting to spread
It's just over a year since the government of Palau declared the waters within its exclusive economic zone to be a shark sanctuary and a ban was imposed on shark fishing over an area of 630 thousand square kilometres... | more
- 26 december 2010
- Climate change effects vary widely between rich and poor countries
When Ulamila Kurai Wragg visited New York in 2009 to speak about the frightening climatic changes taking place in the Cook Islands, some audience members stunned her... | more
- 14 december 2010
- Security Council must tackle climate change
Germany, which will join the UN Security Council in January, believes the body should start dealing with climate change as a potential global threat... | more
- 9 december 2010
- At climate summit, the real action is behind the scenes
Hundreds of bleary-eyed bureaucrats - from powerhouse countries to tiny island nations - have begun the serious wheeling and dealing... | more
- 8 december 2010
- UN's Tiniest Nation: "Help! We're Drowning"
The Nauru emissary sends out a climate change SOS to Cancun negotiators... | more
- 4 december 2010
- At climate summit, they're feeling like deserted islands
Members of AOSIS are furious that the large nations that are the big emitters of greenhouse gases aren't doing more to ensure their survival... | more
- 2 december 2010
- 2010 in the top three warmest years
2001-2010 warmest 10-year period... | more
- 29 november 2010
- Bluefin tuna still largely unprotected as conservation conference ends
Environmental groups criticise 'measly' 4% reduction in fishing quota, which they say will do little to protect declining stocks ... | more
- 26 november 2010
- A billion people will lose their homes due to climate change, says report
British scientists will warn Cancún summit that entire nations could be flooded... | more
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- World is warming quicker than thought in past decade
Report comes as scientists predict 2010 could be hottest year on record... | more
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- UNGA Second Committee Adopts Draft Resolutions on the Protection of Climate and Corals
States to take all necessary steps to protect coral reefs while taking immediate and concerted global, regional and local action to respond to the challenges of climate change and ocean acidification... | more
- 20 november 2010
- As world warms, negotiators give talks another try
A week from now at that Mexican resort, frustrated negotiators will try again to head off a new global deluge... | more
- 16 november 2010
- Kiribati climate change conference calls for urgent cash and action
Some of the countries most vulnerable to climate change sign Ambo declaration calling for adaptation funding to be fast-tracked... | more
- 20 september 2010
- Extreme Heat Puts Coral Reefs at Risk
This year's extreme heat is putting the world's coral reefs under such severe stress that scientists fear widespread die-offs, endangering not only the richest ecosystems in the ocean but also associated fisheries that feed millions of people... | more
- 26 august 2010
- Climate aid reaches $30 bln goal, but is it new?
Aid promises from rich nations to help poor countries slow global warming are reaching the $30 billion goal agreed in Copenhagen but analysts say much of that is old funding dressed up as new pledges... | more
- 23 august 2010
- If a Country Sinks Beneath the Sea, Is It Still a Country?
Rising ocean levels brought about by climate change have created a flood of unprecedented legal questions for small island nations and their neighbors... | more
- 31 july 2010
- Carbon emissions raise global temperatures, coastal risks
People in the Arctic, small island nations, river deltas, and drying regions around the world have documented in very fundamental ways how their climate is changing... | more
- 14 july 2010
- Pacific Islands issue urgent appeal for "long overdue" climate change finance
"Climate change is man-made disaster and redress for the damage being done to our islands is long overdue," said Moses at the AGF briefing... | more
- 11 june 2010
- Small islands, Saudi Arabia temperatures rise over 1.5 degrees C
Small island states were pushing for a technical paper by the UNFCCC secretariat to study the impact of a 1.5 degrees temperature threshold... | more
- 9 june 2010
- Rich nations backtracking on new climate aid, development watchdog warns
IIED says rich nations are double-counting cash and raiding existing budgets to 'wriggle out' of £21bn aid promise... | more
- 8 june 2010
- Climate money ‘is not new’
Finance for developing countries has emerged as a hot issue in climate change talks under way in Bonn... | more
- 3 june 2010
- Mexico refuses to bow to climate treaty pessimism
"Mexico does not want to raise false expectations but we certainly are ambitious," he said, adding that it may even still be possible to deliver some form of binding treaty this year." | more
- 11 may 2010
- Europe to examine case for bigger CO2 cuts
Europe's climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard is to set out the case for a unilateral 30% EU cut in CO2... | more
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- Small islands plea for help to fight climate change
On small islands nations, the signs of climate change are everywhere, from rising sea levels to coral bleaching to the salination of fresh water supplies... | more
- 10 may 2010
- Press Conference on Vulnerabilities of Small Island Developing States
Overdue commitments made to small island developing States (SIDS) must be fulfilled to enable them to survive climate change and other international crises that were threatening their very existence... | more
- 7 may 2010
- Small Islands Urge Action at UN Oceans Meet
Faced with rising sea levels, dying coral reefs and decreasing fish stocks, small island developing states (SIDS) are feeling the effects of ocean decline... | more
- 11 april 2010
- Climate aid threat to countries that refuse to back Copenhagen accord
Developing nations claim they are being offered cash to sign up to climate change deal... | more
- 8 april 2010
- Bonn voyage for Copenhagen bus
The most eloquent and detailed critique [of the Copenhagen Accord] comes from Nauru... | more
- 24 march 2010
- Disputed Isle in Bay of Bengal Disappears Into Sea
New Moore Island in the Sunderbans has been completely submerged... | more
- 23 march 2010
- U.N. Group Rejects Shark Protections
A proposal from European Union and Palau to protect porbeagle sharks squeaked by with a vote of 86-42, with 8 abstentions — a winning margin of one vote... | more
- 18 december 2009
- Island Nation Goes After Czech Coal Plant
As small island countries fight for a climate treaty that can ensure their existence, one archipelago has taken a more technical — and more direct — approach... | more
- 9 december 2009
- Islands seek legally binding pact alongside Kyoto in G-77
The proposal put forward by Tuvalu, which has the backing of the AOSIS and several vulnerable African countries, is for two legally binding protocols, one for the signatories of the Kyoto Protocol and the other for the Bali or Long-Term Co-operation Action track... | more
- 21 november 2009
- Small island youth at risk due to climate change
Negotiators may not reach a climate deal in Copenhagen in December. And with the passing of this opportunity, goes another day borrowed from the world's 2.2 billion children... | more
- 18 november 2009
- Failure on a Climate Treaty Is a Security Risk
Failure on a Copenhagen Climate Treaty Is a Security Risk, Pacific Islands Tell UN General Assembly... | more
- 17 november 2009
- Tonga pursues renewable energy roadmap
Tonga is moving ahead with its plans to reduce its heavy dependence on imported fuel... | more
- 12 november 2009
- Coral highlights complexity of climate change
"It happened so quickly that you went from having what looked like an underwater jungle, like something you'd see in the Amazon forest, to being complete wreckage, like what you'd see at Ground Zero in New York..." | more
- 11 november 2009
- What climate change looks like on the front lines
As chair of the 43-member Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), a coalition pushing for internationally binding cuts in carbon emissions, Grenada's negotiators have been vocal about the lack of progress made at climate talks before the planned deadline in December... | more
- 7 november 2009
- Lifting the lid on climate change talks
Rich countries bullying poorer ones, mud-slinging and back-stabbing - environmental summits can be vicious... | more
- 6 november 2009
- Climate-Accord Deadline May Slip a Year as Nations ‘Play Games’
The deadline for 192 countries to complete a new global-warming accord may slip by as much as one year, as negotiators hold back on pledges to slash emissions or pay financial aid to poor nations... | more
- 4 november 2009
- Five 'mega-trends' - including population growth, urbanization, climate change - make contemporary displacement increasingly complex
High Commissioner for Refugees Says Trends Causing Crises to Multiply; Means Humanitarian Action Operating in Difficult International Environment... | more
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- Climate change could displace 600 million people
The EJF claim that between 500 to 600 million people, equivalent to ten per cent of the world’s population, are at extreme risk of displacement by climate change... | more
- 1 october 2009
- Aid arrives as Samoan death toll rises
Deaths from the 8.1 magnitude quake and subsequent tsunami which struck Samoa and nearby American Samoa early on Tuesday morning were expected to climb beyond the official toll of at least 149... | more
- 30 september 2009
- Scores Are Killed as Tsunami Hits Samoa Islands
A powerful tsunami generated by an undersea earthquake on Tuesday has killed at least 89 people and wiped out several villages on the tropical islands of American Samoa and Samoa... | more
- 25 september 2009
- Pacific Leaders Plead for Climate Action
The Pacific created a wave at the United Nations Summit on Climate Change this week, as leaders begin making a strong commitment for the region on the issue... | more
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- Pacific Nation Declares Itself a Shark Haven
The Pacific island nation of Palau has declared all of its waters a sanctuary for sharks... | more
- 21 september 2009
- Small island countries plead for survival before UN climate talks
The Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) adopted a declaration on Monday calling for a new climate pact that ensures global warming be kept below 1.5 degrees Celsius... | more
- 16 september 2009
- Week of meetings could make or break climate effort
Key meetings unfolding in the coming week may determine whether a two-year effort to combat climate change will triumph or be written off as a flop of historic dimensions... | more
- 3 september 2009
- Kids Go Hungry in Solomons' Reef Islands
Climate change has so badly affected crops in a tiny South Pacific island group that hungry children are being sent home early from school... | more
- 2 september 2009
- Why coral reefs face a catastrophic future
Destroyed by rising carbon levels, acidity, pollution, algae, bleaching and El Niño, coral reefs require a dramatic change in our carbon policy... | more
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- Climate targets 'will kill coral'
Current climate targets are not enough to save the world's coral reefs - and policymakers urgently need to consider the economic benefits they bring... | more
- 31 august 2009
- We Can't Ignore the Security Threat from Climate Change
by U.S. Senator John Kerry
- 26 august 2009
- Tuvalu donates 1 percent of GDP to typhoon relief
A Taiwanese diplomat noted that it is unheard of in the annals of international relations... | more
- 25 august 2009
- Top UN climate scientist backs ambitious CO2 cuts
Barely 100 days before the world hopes to seal a global climate treaty, the UN's top climate scientist has given his personal endorsement to hugely ambitious goals for slashing emissions... | more
- 21 august 2009
- In hot water: World sets ocean temperature record
July was the hottest the world's oceans have been in almost 130 years of record-keeping... | more
- 17 august 2009
- The Climate and National Security
One would think that by now most people would have figured out that climate change represents a grave threat to the planet... | more
- 8 august 2009
- Climate Change Seen as Threat to U.S. Security
The changing global climate will pose profound strategic challenges to the United States in coming decades, raising the prospect of military intervention to deal with the effects of violent storms, drought, mass migration and pandemics... | more
- 6 august 2009
- Heat on Australia-Pacific climate change talks
A group of tiny Pacific Island countries appealed to the world Wednesday to slash greenhouse gas emissions by 45 percent to help save them from rising seas... | more
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- "Sea-locked" Pacific Island states face unique challenge for development
Pacific Island countries face unique development challenge of being located great distances from neighboring centers of economic activity... | more
- 31 july 2009
- Heat on Australia-Pacific climate change talks
Australia's commitment to an emissions target is important to international negotiations leading up to the Copenhagen climate talks... | more
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- Maldives secures significant foreign policy victory at UN
The UN Economic and Social Council adopted a Maldives resolution calling for a review of the structure and effectiveness of UN support for Small Island Developing States... | more
- 30 july 2009
- Don't desert us, say sinking Pacific islands
Three of Australia's biggest non-government organisations are hosting visits by Pacific Islanders to urge Kevin Rudd to do more to combat climate change... | more
- 27 july 2009
- World will warm faster than predicted in next five years, study warns
New estimate based on the forthcoming upturn in solar activity and El Niño southern oscillation cycles is expected to silence global warming sceptics... | more
- 22 july 2009
- Caribbean Reefs Face Severe Summer Threat
Coral reefs in a broad swath of the Caribbean face a substantial risk of severe bleaching and die-offs through October... | more
- 21 july 2009
- Maldives President praised by climate change activist
President Nasheed received plaudits from a prominent climate change activist for the work that the Government of the Maldives is implementing to fight global warming... | more
- 20 july 2009
- Tiny Tuvalu Says All Its Energy Renewable by 2020
The tiny island nation of Tuvalu, already under threat from rising seas caused by global warming, vowed Sunday to do its part for climate change by fueling its economy entirely from renewable sources by 2020... | more
- 17 june 2009
- Maldives leads UN climate change debate
The Maldives led a UN Human Rights Council panel debate yesterday, calling on the international community to protect the rights of people in countries vulnerable to climate change... | more
- 14 june 2009
- A choice on climate change
The report's starkest images demonstrate what the future might hold for small island states around the globe... | more
- 3 june 2009
- Small islands win UN vote on climate change security
The non-binding resolution, passed by consensus by the General Assembly, may help put climate change on the agenda of the more powerful U.N. Security Council... | more
- 29 may 2009
- Refugees Join List of Climate-Change Issues
In the coming days, the United Nations General Assembly is expected to adopt the first resolution linking climate change to international peace and security... | more
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- Report: Climate change crisis 'catastrophic'
The first comprehensive report into the human cost of climate change warns the world is in the throes of a "silent crisis" that is killing 300,000 people each year... | more
- 17 may 2009
- FACTBOX-U.N. natural disaster risk assessment
The United Nations published a landmark report about how natural disasters threaten lives and livelihoods around the world... | more
- 14 may 2009
- Poorest need funds to combat climate change: report
Poor countries already suffering from the impact of climate change urgently need up to $2 billion to help adjust and cope... | more
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- Climate conference urges world to protect oceans
Rising sea levels, warming waters and spiraling acidity caused by global warming are threatening the world's oceans and the communities they support... | more
- 13 may 2009
- Key coral reefs 'could disappear'
The world's most important coral region is in danger of being wiped out by the end of this century unless fast action is taken... | more
- 11 may 2009
- The Missing Maldivians
How climate change might create an immigration crisis... | more
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- Islands top a global list of places to protect
Rare and unique ecological communities will be lost if oceanic islands aren’t adequately considered in a global conservation plan... | more
- 8 may 2009
- Climate change displacement has begun – but hardly anyone has noticed
The first evacuation of an entire community due to manmade global warming is happening on the Carteret Islands... | more
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- Wanted: A New Home for My Country
“We can do nothing to stop climate change on our own, and so we have to buy land elsewhere,” [President] Nasheed said in November... | more
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- Coral reef loss in Caribbean leads to ongoing fish declines
Analyzing 48 surveys of Caribbean fish populations over fifty years, from 1955-2007, a new meta-study has found that fish populations in the famously clear waters began to drop in the mid-90s, leading to a consistent decline that hasn’t stopped... | more
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- One-third of reef-building corals close to extinction, scientists say
One-third of the world’s reef-building corals are at risk of extinction, according to research published today in Science... | more
- 4 may 2009
- US supports reducing climate-warming gases
But a senior State Department official stopped short of endorsing a proposal last week by the small island nations of Micronesia and Mauritius to alter the Montreal Protocol... | more
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- Carteret Islanders Become First Climate Refugees
PNG relocates families as island home disappears... | more
- 29 april 2009
- Kiribati Southern Islands Face Water Crisis
Villages may have to abandon homes... | more
- 21 april 2009
- 54% increase in number of people affected by climate disasters by 2015 could overwhelm emergency responses
Humanitarian system a 'post-code lottery on a global scale' that needs 're-engineering'... | more
- 19 april 2009
- Energy Secretary Offers Dire Global Warming Prediction
Speaking at the Summit of the Americas in the Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago, Steven Chu says some islands could disappear if water levels rise as a result of greenhouse-gas induced climate change... | more
- 8 april 2009
- Forestry Resource Owners Need Say on Carbon Trading
The Office of Climate Change PNG has been challenged to consult the forest resource owners in formulating the policy on carbon trade... | more
- 29 march 2009
- Vanuatu Workshop Explores Climate Change Adaptation
A three-day national workshop on the SPC/GTZ Regional Programme on Adaptation to Climate Change in the Pacific Islands Region was concluded yesterday at the Melanesian Hotel... | more
- 17 march 2009
- Lack of food remains top concern for survivors after record flooding in Fiji
Food scarcity is the primary concern for flood survivors in Fiji, after torrential rains and strong winds saturated the island nation in January... | more
- 15 march 2009
- Why we are opting out of this pact with the devil
The President of the Maldives pledges to make his country carbon neutral within ten years... | more
- 13 march 2009
- Commission allocates €2.7 billion to African, Caribbean and Pacific countries to meet global development challenges
77 African, Caribbean and Pacific countries will benefit from aid in a wide range of sectors such as health, water, combating climate change and peace-keeping... | more
- 10 march 2009
- Carbon emissions creating acidic oceans not seen since dinosaurs
Chemical change placing 'unprecedented' pressure on marine life and could cause widespread extinctions, warn scientists... | more
- 8 march 2009
- Scientists to issue stark warning over dramatic new sea level figures
Rising sea levels pose a far bigger eco threat than previously thought. This week's climate change conference in Copenhagen will sound an alarm over new floodings - enough to swamp Bangladesh, Florida, the Norfolk Broads and the Thames estuary... | more
- 25 february 2009
- First Climate Refugees Run into Legal Snags
Legal issues are hindering the efforts to resettle Carterets islanders to mainland Bougainville, Acting Administrator Patrick Koles said... | more
- 13 february 2009
- Bleak forecast on fishery stocks
The world's fish stocks will soon suffer major upheaval due to climate change, scientists have warned... | more
- 31 january 2009
- Rising Acidity Is Threatening Food Web of Oceans
The oceans have long buffered the effects of climate change by absorbing a substantial portion of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. But this benefit has a catch... | more
- 30 december 2008
- Troubled Waters
The Economist releases a special report on the sea... | more
- 11 november 2008
- Maldives to buy new homeland
The Maldives will begin to divert a portion of the country's billion-dollar annual tourist revenue into buying a new homeland - possibly in Australia - as an insurance policy against climate change... | more
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- Climate change refugees to be resettled in PNG
Flooding has made parts of the Solomon Islands completely uninhabitable and the islands are expected to be fully submerged by 2015. | more
