Leaders from across the South Pacific have called for urgent global action on climate change following a four-day Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) meeting in Fiji, where they also pledged more unity in dealing with regional security issues in an apparent rebuke of China’s push for a regionwide security deal.

During their first in-person meetings since 2019, representatives of 16 of the body’s 17 members declared that the Pacific is facing a climate emergency that threatens the livelihoods, security and wellbeing of its people and ecosystems.

"We are at the forefront of the adverse impacts of climate change," they said in a draft communique, adding that urgent robust and transformative action is needed "globally, regionally and nationally” to avoid "worst-case scenarios."