PINA

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) for the Pacific welcomes Fiji’s enactment of the Climate Change Act 2021. The United Nations agencies commend the Act’s explicit recognition of economic, social and cultural rights and links between gender equality, social inclusion and the Sustainable Development Goals. The Act...

Solomon Islands Ministry of Health and Medical Services has downplayed rumours circulating in the social media that three COVID-19 positive persons boarded the Fiji-Solomon Islands repatriation flight on Thursday, 28 October 2021. A statement from the Ministry confirmed, COVID-19 tests were done for all passengers listed to travel on the flight and results for all returned negative except for three...

Experts from the Australian National University (ANU) warn Pacific nations are at risk of being left behind in global climate negotiations if they aren't a focus of the upcoming COP26 summit. The United Nations COP26 UN Climate Change Conference takes place in Glasgow from 31 October to 12 November. Dr Siobhan McDonnell, Dr Ian Fry and Sala Dr George Carter will...

Covid is an opportunity to put things right in the aid system, Samoa’s Prime Minister, Fiame Naomi Mataafa told the New Zealand Council for International Development’s annual conference Tuesday. PM Mata'afa and Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown thanked New Zealand for its support over many decades through the aid programme, but challenged all donors in the region to re-think...

Chinese President Xi Jinping said Tuesday that the Chinese side stands ready to work with Papua New Guinea (PNG) to build a community with a shared future for China and Pacific island nations. During a telephone conversation with PNG's Prime Minister James Marape, Xi noted that the country has important influence in the Pacific islands region, and China would like...

France has detailed an unprecedented security set-up for New Caledonia's third and final independence referendum on 12 December. The French authorities made the announcement as the pro-independence FLNKS called on its supporters to boycott the vote after France refused to delay it to next year. If the call is heeded, the anti-independence side is all but certain to again have a...

Some of the world's most climate-vulnerable countries have been forced to scale back their attendance at the COP26 climate summit due to COVID-19 travel curbs and costs, blunting their negotiating power, according to Fiji's UN Ambassador. Border closures, quarantine rules and high travel costs will see small island states and poorer nations sending smaller delegations, with some leaders unable to...

Bridging the financial and technical gaps that will limit global warming, is the focus of a high-level debate in the UN General Assembly in New York on Tuesday. The day-long meeting comes just ahead of the COP26 climate change conference for countries to deliver on the promise of keeping global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius, in line with the...

The world is squandering the opportunity to “build back better” from the Covid-19 pandemic and faces disastrous temperature rises of at least 2.7C if countries fail to strengthen their climate pledges, according to a report from the UN. Tuesday’s publication warns that countries’ current pledges would reduce carbon by only about 7.5% by 2030, far less than the 45% cut...

“This island is me, and I am this island,” Wadhuam Pabai. Pabai says of the homeland he’s known all his life. “I can’t imagine being forced to leave Boigu … there are 65,000 years of wealth and experience here,” the father of seven says. Losing Boigu, his home in the Torres Strait, will mean losing all of it. The islands of the...