Pacific Island countries are among those most affected by climate change. Rising sea levels, shifting rainfall patterns and increasing extreme weather events threaten land, livelihoods and cultural heritage across the region, which in turn is intensifying pressures on social cohesion – straining community relations, challenging livelihoods and way of living and posing key questions about the future.
Despite these mounting challenges, the Pacific is increasingly shaping global thinking on climate and environmental security. This has been reflected in recent diplomatic developments, including the Türkiye COP31 Presidency and Australia’s leadership of the COP31 negotiations, backed by Pacific Island countries, and the decision to hold a COP31 pre-COP in the Pacific, creating space to spotlight regional priorities. Pacific leadership has also been visible in efforts to strengthen international legal accountability—through the landmark International Court of Justice advisory proceedings on States’ obligations in respect of climate change, and through initiatives such as the proposal by Vanuatu, Fiji and Samoa to add ecocide to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
On 20 November 2025, the UN Community of Practice on Climate, Peace and Security held its second Pacific-focused session. Convened by the Climate Security Mechanism (CSM), the discussion brought together regional experts, community practitioners and international partners to discuss ongoing challenges and priorities but also to showcase some innovative responses put in place across the region.
Speakers included Timothy Bryar, Programme Advisor, Climate Mobility from the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) Secretariat; Tedius Owiti, IOM Head of Programme Support from the joint UNDP-IOM programme in Papua New Guinea; Litia Nailatikau, Project Manager from Conciliation Resources; and Jamie Tarawa, UNDP Climate Security Advisor to the PIF, via the CSM. Together, they highlighted how the region is navigating profound challenges while advancing solutions rooted in dignity, identity and community agency.
Climate Mobility: A Framework Built on Rights and Dignity
The Pacific Regional Framework on Climate Mobility, endorsed by Pacific Island Forum Leaders in 2023, marks a paradigm shift in how the region approaches climate-induced movement. The framework emphasises the right of communities to remain on their ancestral lands through strengthened, locally led adaptation, while also enabling proactive approaches to rights-based and culturally appropriate movement in response to the impacts of climate change.
Its implementation plan, endorsed in August 2025 after extensive regional consultations, offers an ecosystem for supporting action that is flexible to the needs and priorities of countries.
At its core are five priority actions:
– comprehensive risk assessments that lead to drive evidence-based climate mobility action;
– the establishment of a Climate Mobility Action Hub to support government and community decision-making and action;
peer-to-peer exchanges on planned relocation;
– a regional advisory mechanism for promoting inclusive, rights-based and culturally appropriate approaches; and
– enabling timely access to financing for climate mobility action.
By establishing a regional mechanism dedicated to dialogue, research and knowledge exchange on human rights in the context of climate change, the framework underscores that climate mobility is fundamentally about people – their dignity, cultural identity, and ability to make informed choices about their future.
Peer learning has emerged as one of the strongest assets. Structured exchanges between governments and communities enable countries and local actors with more experience to support others beginning this journey. The first peer-to-peer exchange will take place in January 2026 between the governments of Palau and Fiji, with the second exchange scheduled in March 2026 between Vanuatu and Fiji. The value of these exchanges lies not only in the transfer of technical knowledge but also in the practical wisdom and solidarity that emerge when communities learn directly from others who have navigated similar, often difficult, transitions.
Speakers also highlighted that effective implementation depends on partners aligning their support with existing regional structures and priorities, ensuring climate mobility efforts stay consistent, community-led and firmly guided by Pacific priorities. The discussion underscored the relevance of the Pacific Resilience Facility as a key regional financing instrument, particularly in enabling communities and governments to access grant-based resources for locally led adaptation, resilience and climate mobility-related solutions. The Facility offers an important pathway to translate policy frameworks into sustained, community-level impact.
Women at the Forefront of Climate Security
In Papua New Guinea’s Highlands, a UNDP-IOM joint project is demonstrating how climate, peace and security interventions become most effective when they put women’s agency at the center of the intervention, based on their knowledge and leadership capacity.
The project uses a community-based planning approach that shows how women’s leadership emerges naturally when processes are genuinely inclusive, and space is created for women to shape decision making.
The knowledge of women actors on local impacts of climate change spans several dimensions such as water, agriculture, among many others. They are able to early identify how climate pressures can act locally on intensifying existing tensions. Through facilitated planning, local teams, formed under the project, map community resources, analyse drivers of fragility and conflict, and prioritise interventions grounded in lived experience.
Two examples illustrate how this translates into community-led adaptation and conflict prevention.
When landslides destroyed or compromised local water sources, women were forced to walk long distances into neighbouring tribal areas – journeys that carried risks of igniting tension over water resources and expose them to violence. Through community planning process, water point construction and management of communal water resources emerged as a shared and solving solution.
Former rival communities, already navigating fragile peace agreements, chose central and neutral sites for shared water infrastructure. The outcome was not only improved access but shared benefits that strengthened social cohesion, turning water from a source of tension into a catalyst for cooperation.
In areas experiencing high levels of gender-based violence, communities identified the need for safe, accessible spaces that could withstand extreme weather events, especially during the rainy season. The resulting multipurpose community centres now serve several essential functions, beyond sheltering: venues for training on climate-resilient agriculture; safe spaces for women’s participation in adaptation planning; and, unexpectedly but crucially, village court halls. In remote areas with limited access to the formal justice mechanisms, delays in court sessions can lead to escalation of disputes. By providing a reliable venue for community-led justice processes, the centres help resolve conflicts in a timely manner.
Cultural identity and community-led solutions
Pacific cultures are rooted in respect for and harmony with nature. Traditional practices, such as tambu periods, ceremonial exchanges, and seasonal rules on harvesting have long functioned as conservation systems guided by spiritual, environmental and cultural rhythms.
These practices prioritise sustainability over profit, sustaining ecosystems and reinforcing social bonds. Yet the ancestral protocols that protect fishing grounds, plants used for basket making and cultural attire, burial grounds and heritage sites are now under threat from rising seas, changing rainfall patterns and environmental degradation.
Experiences from communities across Pacific Islands countries show how these disruptions cascade through social systems. When cultural practices can no longer be maintained, or when relocation severs connections to ancestral lands, the resulting loss of identity and cohesion can create conditions for future conflict.
Peacebuilding partners highlighted how community-led dialogue is opening new pathways to address climate-related pressures on customary systems. A recent workshop brought together communities at different stages of relocation with government counterparts to analyse climate- and conflict-related challenges using participatory, conflict-sensitive tools. These discussions also revealed areas where existing policies and procedures could be strengthened, underscoring that when communities are genuine partners in dialogue, they help shape solutions that are contextually grounded and more likely to sustain social cohesion.
Faith-based organisations and churches also play a vital role. Across widely dispersed islands, where government services are often centralised and irregular, places of worship remain among the most important local institutions. Faith leaders provide emotional support in normal times, and critical assistance during emergencies. Religious networks help communities navigate the emotional and cultural dimensions of climate-related events – supporting continuity of identity, history and connection in the face of any possible physical change to the environment as a result of climate impacts.
Looking forward: Lessons from the Pacific to the World
The Pacific experience offers five important lessons for climate, peace and security responses.
First, rights-based approaches must continue to place human dignity and protection at the centre. Technical solutions that are not rooted in human rights ultimately address symptoms rather than causes and overlook the deeper social and cultural dimensions of insecurity.
Second, cultural preservation cannot be treated as ancillary to climate action. The region shows that resilience is inseparable from identity, connection to land and sea, and the customary systems that sustain social cohesion. Approaches grounded in cultural protocols have proved to be more effective and sustainable than top-down solutions.
Third, future efforts should build on existing platforms and coordination mechanisms rather than create new ones. With limited administrative capacity across many Pacific countries, streamlining processes and ensuring that climate, peace and security concerns are integrated into existing structures is essential.
Fourth, it is essential to connect local, regional and global processes. As regional security frameworks evolve and global dialogues on issues such as sea-level rise and climate mobility advance, there is a clear opportunity to reinforce the pathways through which community perspectives inform these debates.
Finally, peer-to-peer learning offers a concrete entry point for scaling Pacific approaches within and beyond the region. Facilitated exchanges between the Pacific and other climate-vulnerable contexts can help identify common ground, transfer practical tools and enable other regions to tailor approaches that have already proved effective.
Across all these lessons, one message stands out: meaningful climate, peace and security solutions begin with people – with culture, community agency and dignity at the centre.
