Pacific Island leaders have called for urgent increases in climate financing, deeper cuts in greenhouse gas emissions and a faster transition away from fossil fuels, warning that rising seas and climate-related disasters are threatening the survival and economies of vulnerable island nations.
Addressing the COP31 climate summit in Antalya, Türkiye, on Thursday, Solomon Islands Prime Minister Matthew Cooper Wale said his country was facing annual economic losses of US$79 million from climate-related impacts, equivalent to five percent of its gross domestic product.
Wale said sea levels around the Solomon Islands were rising by seven to 10 millimetres annually, two to three times the global average, with several inhabited islands already lost to rising seas and coastal erosion.
He called on major greenhouse gas emitters to make immediate and substantial emissions cuts, phase out fossil fuel subsidies and increase climate financing for vulnerable countries.
Wale also urged developed countries to ensure climate finance was provided through grants rather than loans, with funding that was flexible, driven by national priorities and accessible through country systems.
Tonga Prime Minister Lord Fatafehi Fakafanua also called for accelerated action to move away from fossil fuels and eliminate subsidies that encourage their continued use.
He said Tonga was targeting renewable energy to generate 70 percent of its electricity by 2030 and 100 percent by 2035.
Fakafanua stressed that Pacific countries needed timely and adequate climate financing and urged international partners to honour their climate commitments.
Tuvalu Prime Minister Feleti Teo warned that rising sea levels posed an existential threat to his country, which sits barely two metres above sea level.
He said Tuvalu was developing elevated and safer land and strengthening coastal defences but stressed that adaptation measures alone would not secure the country’s future.
“The world must cut emissions, phase out fossil fuels, and accelerate the transition to renewable energy,” Teo said.
He also called on the international community to ensure that no partner was left behind, including Taiwan.
Kiribati President Taneti Maamau highlighted the importance of international cooperation and multilateralism in addressing the climate crisis.
He called for long-term climate resilience measures, keeping the 1.5 degrees Celsius warming limit within reach through a phase-out of fossil fuels and increasing global electrification to at least 35 percent by 2035.
Niue Prime Minister Dalton Tagelagi warned that dependence on fossil fuels was placing a growing financial burden on small island countries, particularly amid the ongoing fuel crisis.
He urged countries to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels and stressed the need to limit any overshoot of the 1.5 degrees Celsius warming threshold and make it as short as possible.
Tagelagi also called on international partners to triple adaptation financing, provide it through grants rather than loans and simplify access to climate funds for small island developing states.
The interventions by Pacific leaders at COP31 highlighted the region’s growing concerns over rising sea levels, climate-related economic losses, energy insecurity and the gap between international climate commitments and the support reaching vulnerable countries.
They called for stronger global action to reduce emissions and more accessible, predictable and adequate financing to help Pacific nations protect their communities, economies and territories.
