Natural science Climate change poses a threefold threat to people in the western Pacific

Sea levels are rising, the ocean is heating up and acidifying: the western Pacific is experiencing greater consequences of climate change than many other parts of the world, although the region has hardly contributed to greenhouse gases, as the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) reports.

Sea levels have risen by 10 to 15 centimeters in parts of the region since 1993, almost twice as much as the global average, according to the WMO on the state of the climate in the Western Pacific region in 2023.

The region includes parts of Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand as well as island states in the Pacific, such as the Fiji Islands, Vanuatu and Tonga.

Heat waves in the sea

The surface temperature of the ocean northeast of New Zealand and south of Australia rose by more than 0.4 degrees per decade between 1981 and 2023, three times the global average. Since then, heatwaves in the ocean have occurred twice as often as the long-term average, they are more intense and last longer. This threatens fishing grounds and coral reefs and promotes the growth of toxic algae.

In addition, the pH value in the oceans is falling in many places - in other words, they are becoming more acidic because they are absorbing more climate-damaging CO2. This can destroy coral reefs, which protect the coasts from erosion, and also affect fish stocks. According to measurements from the Aloha station in Hawaii, acidification increased by more than twelve percent between 1988 and 2020, as reported by the WMO.

"Paradise in danger"

"A global catastrophe is plunging a paradise into danger," said UN Secretary-General António Guterres. "The ocean is overflowing and the reason is clear: greenhouse gases, mainly from the burning of fossil fuels, are causing the planet to boil."

Rising sea levels are causing islands to lose coastal strips, and stronger and more frequent storms are flooding farmland and contaminating freshwater reserves with salt water, while acidification is reducing fishing yields. Some island states fear that they will become uninhabitable. The island state of Kiribati, for example, has already bought land on the Fiji Islands in order to relocate its inhabitants.