Climate Trumps Security as Key Issue for Pacific Leaders: Lowy Institute

As 18 Pacific nations—including Australia and New Zealand—gather in Tonga’s capital Nuku’alofa this week, numerous concerns will occupy their talks, but none more pressing than the effect of climate change on some of the world’s smallest nations, according to a report from the Sydney-based Lowy Institute. “Climate resilience will increasingly be at the centre of geopolitical partnerships,” the report, titled “The Great Game in the Pacific Islands,” predicts. For many low-lying islands in the region, rising sea levels and increasingly severe weather events pose a real and immediate threat to their territorial integrity, economic stability, and the safety and security of their citizens....