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© 2025 Island Innovation. All rights reserved.

    News

    Curated stories and analysis from islands and sustainability leaders worldwide.

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    Showing 9 of 254 news items in Policy & Governance
    COP climate talks are 'heartbreak' for Pacific Islands. Here is why they want to host them
    Policy & GovernanceOctober 19, 2025

    COP climate talks are 'heartbreak' for Pacific Islands. Here is why they want to host them

    Photo credit: Sergei Grits / AP via ABC.net.au Excerpt from abc.net.au Joseph Sikulu's long-haul journey home to the Pacific has felt fruitless after the recent world climate talks. It has become a "heartbreaking" exercise seeing the annual United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP) summit achieve so little of the action needed for Pacific Islands to survive climate change, the Tongan-Australian climate activist said. But he still makes the multi-day trip to the negotiations each year, regardless of their slow progress on curbing carbon emissions.

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    ‘Humanitarian’ visa must be created for Pacific Islanders displaced by climate crisis, experts say
    Policy & GovernanceOctober 19, 2025

    ‘Humanitarian’ visa must be created for Pacific Islanders displaced by climate crisis, experts say

    Excerpt from theguardian.com ‘Humanitarian’ visa must be created for Pacific Islanders displaced by climate crisis, experts say Calls for reform to allow people across the Pacific threatened by climate crisis to more easily migrate, particularly to New Zealand Lagipoiva Cherelle Jackson Thu 9 Oct 2025 02.02 BST Share Climate and migration experts are calling for urgent action to create legal pathways for people displaced by the climate crisis, as a new report highlights the scale of the problem across the Pacific. Research by Amnesty International released on Thursday found current immigration systems are inadequate for Pacific Islanders seeking safety and stability, as rising seas threaten to make their homelands uninhabitable. Amnesty has called on New Zealand – home to the world’s largest Pacific diaspora – to urgently reform its policies to provide “rights-based approach to climate-related displacement”. “This would include offering a dedicated humanitarian visa,” the report said. It also argued providing safe options for those most severely affected by climate change through humanitarian visas is “part of states’ obligations to ensure protection for people whose human rights are being threatened”. The report highlights how Tuvalu and Kiribati, where most land lies just 2 to 3 metres above sea level, face existential threats from rising seas, coastal erosion, and extreme weather. These impacts already undermine access to clean water, food, and safe housing. According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), at least 50,000 Pacific Islanders each year face the risk of displacement from climate impacts such as sea level rise and extreme weather. More than half of the Pacific Islands’ population live within 500 metres of the coast, the WMO said, where sea levels are rising faster than the global average and driving pressures for climate-induced migration.

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    Bonaire residents take Netherlands to court over climate
    Policy & GovernanceOctober 17, 2025

    Bonaire residents take Netherlands to court over climate

    Photo credit: dbvirago / Getty Images via Euractiv.com Excerpt from euractiv.com Residents on a tiny island off the coast of Venezuela and NGO Greenpeace on Tuesday urged the Netherlands to take action on the climate crisis, at the opening of a trial in The Hague. Bonaire – one of the Dutch territories worst-hit by the climate crisis, according to Greenpeace – demands through the courts that the Dutch government develops concrete plans to protect the island and reduce CO2 emissions to zero by 2040.The trial at The Hague is a first for Europe and follows an advisory opinion issued by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in July, which provides a legal interpretation of international climate law. “Climate change is not a distant threat for us … Where we used to work, play, walk, or fish during the day, the heat is now often unbearable,” Bonaire resident and farmer Onnie Emerenciana told the court. A 2022 study by Amsterdam’s Vrije Universiteit showed that as much as a fifth of Bonaire could be swallowed up by the sea by the end of the century. Sporting a scarf in the Bonaire flag colours, Emerenciana warned that “parents say their children can no longer walk to school as they used to … Outdoor games have been replaced by indoor activities behind closed doors”.

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    The Canary Islands reject a national climate pact that ignores the archipelago's unique characteristics
    Policy & GovernanceOctober 13, 2025

    The Canary Islands reject a national climate pact that ignores the archipelago's unique characteristics

    Excerpt from gobiernodecanarias.org The Canary Islands Commission for Climate Action and Energy, meeting for the second time, calls for an agreement based on technical and consensus, not a mere political gesture, that includes aspects not included in the current Pact, such as the impact on the oceans, rising sea levels, or haze. The Committee of Experts, a member of this Commission, agrees and insists that the agreement must strengthen existing laws, citing as an example the Canary Islands Climate Change Law, one of the most advanced in the country. This Commission, whose objective is the coordination between the different Ministries of the Government for the effective application of the Law on Climate Change and Energy Transition of the Canary Islands, also agreed to the creation of a technical working group made up of the different areas of the Executive

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    China could shore up Scarborough Shoal control with artificial island: analyst
    Policy & GovernanceSeptember 30, 2025

    China could shore up Scarborough Shoal control with artificial island: analyst

    Excerpt from scmp.com China could build an artificial island at the fiercely contested Scarborough Shoal to shore up control of the surrounding waters if its newly established nature reserve fails to stem challenges by the Philippines, a prominent Chinese scholar on the dispute has said. But a final decision would boil down to control, cost and confrontation, according to Wu Shicun of the National Institute for South China Sea Studies, a government-sponsored think tank. A major consideration would be “whether it serves to strengthen China’s assertion of sovereignty and effective administrative control”, Shanghai-based news site Guancha quoted Wu as saying in an interview published on Sunday.

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    Why a tiny island's fate could decide Seychelles' next president
    Policy & GovernanceSeptember 30, 2025

    Why a tiny island's fate could decide Seychelles' next president

    Excerpt from bbc.com A tiny, almost barren island in the Indian Ocean has become a battleground in this weekend's elections in Seychelles, prompting global environmental concern. Assumption Island, in the western Indian Ocean, possesses little at first glance that would set even the most curious and intrepid traveller's pulse racing. Stripped almost bare and blisteringly hot, with few man-made structures, it covers an area similar to London's Heathrow Airport and is, arguably, only slightly more scenic. Yet this tropical island anomaly - both geographically remote, and far from the popular ideal of lush paradise - has become a hotspot for geopolitical powers and eco-warriors, plus a political lightning rod in Seychelles, the country that owns it. Situated 1,140km (700 miles) from Seychelles' most populous main island, tourist-friendly Mahé, Assumption Island is a sausage-shaped, coralline finger of low-level scrub, fringed by casuarina trees. It was ravaged for its nitrogen-rich guano (seabird droppings) and agricultural use ended decades ago. But now, Assumption Island's strategic position and ecological value is priceless.

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    PM Mottley to UN: Stop treating small islands like children
    Policy & GovernanceSeptember 30, 2025

    PM Mottley to UN: Stop treating small islands like children

    Excerpt from guardian.co.tt ​Akash Samaroo Reporting from UNGA in New York ​Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley has called on the United Nations to desist from treating some countries like “children” and to reform its Security Council to include permanent seats for small island developing states (SIDS) and African nations. Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly yesterday, Mottley said the UN Security Council must reflect the “multipolar” world that exists now and recognise that there have been substantial geopolitical shifts since 1962, the last time the council was reformed. Mottley boldly told the UN that SIDS and African countries cannot be used for convenience. “We all have perspectives that must be heard. You cannot ask us really, to show up for family photos and votes when you need them and then exclude us from the family’s decision-making as if you are the grown-ups and we are the children. We are not minors,” she said. Mottley added, “We are independent sovereign states with full capacity and we insist on being treated as such.”

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    Pacific islands freeze out US and China at annual summit
    Policy & GovernanceSeptember 17, 2025

    Pacific islands freeze out US and China at annual summit

    Caption: Jeremiah Manele, prime minister of the Solomon Islands, opens the annual Pacific Islands Forum in Honiara on Monday. Photo credit: Ma Ping / Xinhua via Alamy Excerpt from ft.com Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of FT.com T&Cs and Copyright Policy. Email licensing@ft.com to buy additional rights. Subscribers may share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service. Pacific island leaders gathering in the Solomon Islands this week have adopted a novel strategy to prevent US-China tensions from overshadowing the region’s most important annual summit: inviting neither. The Pacific Islands Forum — which brings together 18 countries ranging from tiny island nations Tuvalu and Niue to regional heavyweights Australia and New Zealand — has been dominated in recent years by an escalating competition for influence between China and western allies. Pacific island countries have also been riven over recognition of Taiwan, over which Beijing claims sovereignty. Three of Taiwan’s 12 diplomatic allies — Palau, Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands — are in the Pacific, and Taipei is one of about 20 external partners to the PIF, sending representatives to its annual summits alongside countries such as the US, China and Japan.

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    Smaller Island States Leaders Set Priorities Ahead of Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting - Island Times
    Policy & GovernanceSeptember 17, 2025

    Smaller Island States Leaders Set Priorities Ahead of Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting - Island Times

    Excerpt from islandtimes.org HONIARA, Solomon Islands (Sept. 8, 2025) — “The unity and clarity of purpose that we show here will set the tone for the rest of our deliberations in Honiara,” Kiribati President Taneti Maamau said Monday as he opened the Small Island States (SIS) Leaders Meeting, the first gathering leading into the 54th Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting later this week. Leaders of the SIS grouping — representing some of the Pacific’s most vulnerable nations — are meeting in Honiara to address pressing priorities that include securing reliable air and sea transport, advancing fisheries development, strengthening health systems, and improving access to climate finance. The SIS group is made up of Kiribati, Palau, Tuvalu, Nauru, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and Niue. Together, they represent some of the smallest populations in the Pacific Islands Forum but face some of the region’s most severe challenges, from climate change impacts to economic viability and connectivity barriers.

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