PINA

Tahiti will host the Pacific Games for the third time having been awarded the 2027 event at the Pacific Games Council (PGC) General Assembly on Saturday. Tahiti and Vanuatu were bidding to stage the 18th edition of the continental event. The PGC’s 22 members voted in favour of Tahiti’s candidacy. "The candidacy file for French Polynesia,...

The every-four-year Micronesian Games have been postponed due to ongoing uncertainty about Covid and restricted travel in the region. The large sub-regional sports event was scheduled for the July-August period in 2022. The Marshall Islands Cabinet, based on recommendations from the National Olympic Committee (NOC) and the Games Organising Committee, has approved pushing the sports competition to 2023....

Created as part of the Islands Speak series of gifted Pacific poets joined by indigenous artists to create a visual, moving, digitally enhanced offering in this curated series of ten video poems. Islands Speak is part of the wider project Mana Moana - Pacific Voices, a collection of emotive and artistic video works that have been created to amplify and...

By Pita Ligaiula in Glasgow The rest of the world must play its part in slowing climate change and helping island states to adapt to its impacts says Inger Andersen Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). Speaking at the COP 26 High-Level Event organised by Pacific Islands Forum Saturday, Andersen said nations...

By Pita Ligaiula in Glasgow COP26 President Alok Sharma says finding consensus this week is not going to be straightforward as they face the arduous task of building political consensus between almost 200 countries. He made the statement as countries tries to reach an agreement in the final week of climate change negotiations. “Nowhere is immune to climate change and this...

By Pita Ligaiula in Glasgow As COP26 enters its final week of negotiation, Pacific Small Islands Developing States (PSIDS) have expressed disappointment with the slow progress being made in Glasgow. Samoan Prime Minister and Chair of PSIDS Naomi Fiame Mata’afa told the Pacific Leaders Informal Dialogue with UK Lord Goldsmith Monday, their collective position is that if COP26 is to...

By Pita Ligaiula in Glasgow The Pacific has called for a dedicated funding facility for loss and damage as the world enters the final week of COP26 climate change negotiation underway in Glasgow. The call came as the COP26 presidency made adaptation, loss and damage the theme for Monday negotiation. Developing countries including the Pacific are calling for additional and dedicated...

By Pita Ligaiula in Glasgow Fijian Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama has called on every world leaders to take immediate action that limits global warming to the Paris Agreement’s 1.5-degree Celsius threshold. At the COP26 High-Level Event he hosted as the Forum Chair, Bainimarama said 1.5-degree is not just a preference –– it should be a promise that we do not break. “To...

By Pita Ligaiula in Glasgow Fijian Prime Minister and Forum Chair Voreqe Bainimarama says the ocean is central to the people of the Pacific and called for urgent action to reduce and prevent the irreversible impacts of climate change on our Ocean. Speaking at the launch of the Declaration on Preservation of Maritime Zones in the face of sea level rise...

By Pita Ligaiula in Glasgow Pacific Ocean Commissioner Henry Puna has called on leaders of the Pacific to never give up in global leadership in ocean governance. Speaking at the launch of the Declaration on Preservation of Maritime Zones in the face of sea level rise for the Pacific at the margins of COP26 in Glasgow, Henry Puna said the Climate-Ocean...