Wellington (AFP) - Delegates from several countries will meet next week at a COP31 preparatory conference in the Pacific, with the aim of advancing climate negotiations and observing first-hand the damage caused by climate change in island countries.

First modification: 02/10/2026 - 15:24

"We need you to come see it," Palau Environment Minister Steven Victor said at the opening of the Pacific Islands Forum in late August.

Ministers, negotiators and a small group of world leaders will participate from October 5 to 8 in the city of Nadi, Fiji, in a meeting aimed at advancing climate talks.

The debates seek to prepare the ground for COP31, the major global climate conference sponsored by the UN, to be held in November in Antalya, Türkiye.

For Pacific nations, the event represents an opportunity to draw the attention of the international community to the devastating effects of climate change in the region.

Sea level is rising at a record pace due to warming oceans and melting glaciers, according to a report published in August by the UN General Secretariat.

This could force 1.2 billion people to move around the world by 2050, while island countries face a rise in sea levels twice the global average.

The program of the main delegates includes a day in Tuvalu, a small island State that is already preparing plans to relocate its population in the face of the advance of the sea.

So far, fewer than a dozen leaders, mainly from the Pacific, have confirmed their attendance at the meetings in Fiji and Tuvalu, raising concerns about possible low participation.

Fiji indicated in September that it expected the presence of the heads of state of Antigua and Barbuda, Cape Verde, Thailand, Maldives and East Timor.

Nepalese Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal confirmed his attendance at the Pacific climate meeting following the devastating disaster in his country on August 26.

A huge avalanche of water, mud and rocks caused by the collapse of a glacier on the border between Nepal and China then caused nearly 1,500 deaths and left 5,800 missing in both countries.

© 2026 AFP

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