Pacific islands face food shortages, scientists warn

Scientists warned Wednesday that Pacific islands face food shortages and damaged drinking water supplies as global warming overshoots the 1.5C target set by the Paris Agreement.

A UN Environment Programme report projected that global temperature rise will peak at 1.8C above pre-industrial levels. Scientists told a summit of Pacific leaders in Palau that overshooting 1.5C would cut fishing licence fees by $90 million, or 13 percent of government revenue in the region.

Andrew Jones, deputy director general of The Pacific Community, said tuna will migrate east, away from island states where a third of the world's tuna is caught. He said coastal fishers who feed island communities would lose 65 percent of their catch.

“That's about two meals per family per week that is not on the plate -- of clean, free healthy protein that will need to be replaced,” Jones told reporters.

He said devastating floods would increase and salt water would inundate drinking water, reducing the ability to live on islands.

Maina Talia, climate change minister for low-lying Tuvalu, said the science showed the climate crisis “is real now, it is here now”. Pacific islands are seeking financial help for climate adaptation and tougher action by developed countries to reduce fossil fuel use.

Marshall Islands climate envoy Tina Stege said Pacific states had to do everything possible to return to the 1.5C path. Vanuatu's climate change minister Ralph Regenvanu urged Australia, the largest member of the Pacific regional bloc and a major coal and gas exporter, to stop expanding fossil fuel exports.

“Australia is not doing enough,” Regenvanu told reporters.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said his country's energy transition “can't happen overnight” and that gas had a role in the shift to renewables. “We all need to do more,” he said.