This February, Pacific RISA researchers Laura Brewington, Victoria Keener, and Juno Fitzpatrick traveled to Wellington, New Zealand to attend the second Pacific Climate Change Conference. The conference, hosted by Victoria University of Wellington and SPREP, brought together a broad range of voices on climate change, from the science to the impacts to the policy and public implications.

“But all of our efforts will be meaningless unless there is a concerted and more ambitious effort by all countries to reduce emissions and scale up support for adaptation in the most vulnerable countries.”   Honourable Tuila‘epa Dr Sa‘ilele Malielegaoi, Prime Minister of Samoa

Dr. Brewington presented new results from the Pacific RISA social network analysis regarding perceptions of risk, sense of community, and sense of responsibility among Pacific Island climate change professionals, which highlighted the diverse range of concerns and beliefs about future climate change across different islands and archipelagos. Dr. Keener discussed the challenges faced by intermediate climate modelers in translating climate science for natural resource managers and policy makers in Hawaii, and many participants from other parts of the region echoed those challenges and provoked discussion on opportunities for better engagement between scientists and stakeholders. Ms. Fitzpatrick presented the preliminary results from Pacific RISA research in the Republic of the Marshall Islands on climate-induced migration, and the difficulties that migrants encounter once they leave their home communities and attempt to settle in Hawaii or the mainland United States. While better healthcare and job opportunities are the top reasons for leaving the Marshall Islands, rising sea levels and contaminated land and water resources exhaust residents’ willingness to return to their home.

Nowhere is climate change, and ocean change, a more urgent issue than across the Pacific, home to many low-lying island nations and sensitive to large swings in climate from year to year. During the conference, the stark realities of climate change in the region were laid bare, but the presence of many different voices spanning a range of sectors sparked a diverse discussion on climate change and an exchange of ideas on how to address this issue, together.