Vulnerable Small Island Countries Suffer Most

Host: Can you discuss how climate change affects Pacific Island countries, especially those in the South Pacific Islands?

Sam Savou: I think what a lot of people don’t realize at the moment is that in the Pacific, we already have climate change refugees. This has happened about three or four years ago. And whilst the topic now is on Kiribati , Tuwalu and low-lying atolls. The biggest countries of Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea have already had displaced people because of climate change. In Papua New Guinea, in 2008 and 2009, people out in the Carteret Islands had to be moved off, because those islands now by 2015 will be under water. And also in Vanuatu, the same thing has happened. And the next people on the list of countries that would be affected most by this would be Kiribati and Tuvalu. So in the Pacific, whilst we have 15 countries, each country’s vulnerability to climate change differs, but some of the countries are suffering more than others.