World leaders will meet this week for climate negotiations, but will COP29 deliver action for the Pacific?

For decades, Pacific countries have been mere beneficiaries of climate change policies and decisions, detached from the realities affecting families and communities.

Some of these decisions have left many countries feeling that the human aspect of climate change as it relates to the people of the Pacific is not truly understood.

For the Pacific, the threat of climate change does not only mean coastal retreat. It also means the inability to produce food, relocation and countries that will cease to exist in the next 50 years.

In this context, Pacific countries are becoming more vocal on the world stage. At the highest levels of international government, Pacific leaders are treading a tricky political path.

They are showing the world what climate change looks like while negotiating aid with bigger, more powerful countries.

In 1995, scientists became increasingly concerned about greenhouse gases and global warming. That year, the United Nations held its first meeting on climate change for its Conference of the Parties (COP).

Since then, world leaders have come together to discuss climate change. The meetings seem to get bigger every year, with titles to match.

In 2021, the President of Palau, Surangel Whipps Jr, visited Glasgow for COP26. where he entered an exhibition building filled with politicians, aides and activists.

Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson hugged Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Prince William rubbed shoulders with Bill Gates and the motto of the week was a call to keep global temperatures below 1.5 degrees Celsius.

It's easy to be ignored in discussions

Mr Whipps Jr said it was easy for Pacific voices to be ignored at these high-profile, high-stakes meetings.

“The hardest challenge, I think, is sometimes you're drowning. People are in denial that it's actually happening and that's probably partly because of misinformation,” he said.

“I mean, you can go to Tuvalu, you can go to the Marshall Islands. You can come to Palau. We live it. We know what it's like. We have more storms. We have droughts. We have a rise from sea level. We are witnessing coral bleaching. We have our jellyfish that have disappeared due to the extreme heat.

“These are all realities we face today.

At COP26 in Glassgow, Mr Whipps Jr made headlines after telling world leaders they might as well “bomb” the Pacific when he drew a parallel between the impact of the Second World War and the destruction caused by climate change.

“You know, in Palau, we suffered the aftermath of World War II. Palau actually had the worst battle, the one with the highest casualty rate of any war ever seen in the world. this little island.

“If you go back in history, it was bombed. It was bombed so many times that there was nothing left on it. So, I was thinking about it. This is a battle we have to fight to save ourselves, to defend our freedom, to defend our planet and prevent our islands from being conquered.

The cost of action on climate change that Mr Whipps Jr highlights here is one of the biggest challenges facing Pacific countries. Across the region, rising sea levels are destroying crops, eroding coastlines and flooding villages.

Developing countries often lack funds to rebuild.

The disconnection

Mr Whipps Jr was just one of several Pacific countries attending the COP meeting in Glasgow.

In a short video sent to the UN, Tuvalu's Foreign Minister Simon Kofe gave a knee-deep speech to show how his country was confronting climate change.

Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape joined the call for more funds to help Pacific countries in a recorded message.

But Vinzealhar Ainjo Nen, a climate campaigner in PNG, felt frustrated watching his post.

She has the impression that the big debates that leaders lead on the world stage do not always translate into action.

“I would say over the last couple of years Papua New Guinea has stepped up in terms of government agencies actually playing a role in trying to help local communities,” she said.

“But that's not always the case, because sometimes when communities need to do projects or communities need to do activities related to climate action, we don't really get help from the government.

“Most of the time they tell us it's because we have to meet certain requirements. Other times it's simply because they just don't have the funds set aside for it. Most of the time they tell us it's because we have to meet certain requirements. funds, they say, go to policymaking.

Vinzealhar The view concerns are shared by many communities.

As debates continue, the world's first climate refugees on the Cataret Islands in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville (AROB) in Papua New Guinea remain largely forgotten in political discussions as Papua New Guinea and AROB discuss the political future of Bougainville.

Other smaller islands suffer a similar fate but do not receive as much attention as they need. Much of the work to address the effects of climate change is left to communities, without any government support.