Communities throughout the Pacific region have been struggling to come to grips with these changes. Photo credit: RNZ Pacific.
Source: RNZ Pacific
New analysis has confirmed the Western Pacific region has recorded its fifth warmest year ever in 2025 since 1940.
The Copernicus Climate Change Service’s ERA5 dataset – the world’s most advanced and widely used dataset – also noted that 2025 was the third warmest year, globally, after 2023 and 2024.
As a result, communities throughout the Pacific region have been struggling to come to grips with these changes, and how they impact public health, food security, biodiversity and their economies.
Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru,and Tuvalu have all reported severe water shortages over the last couple of years.
The Marshall Islands declared a national emergency due to a severe drought problem in late 2023 and early 2024.
Residents in its northernmost atoll group, unable to get drinkable groundwater, survived on emergency water shipments and desalination units.
Pacific temperatures have been rising steadily – about 0.1 degrees Celsius per decade since 1940 – and every year since 1986 has been warmer than the long-term average.
This warming has impacted agriculture, especially food security, as soil salinity has increased, particularly in atoll-based settlements.
Even the larger Pacific Island nations have struggled with a reduced water supply, which has reduced their agricultural productivity.
This has further increased their dependence on imported food, thus driving up food costs.
The better-informed Pacific nations can be about these warming trends, and their likely impacts, the better prepared they can be to mitigate the risks associated with changing weather patterns.
Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) climate science and information programme director Salesa Nihmei said such information is important for informing what happens at the national level.
“Climate data and outlooks contribute to national climate and adaptation strategies and support community planning and early response to climate and weather-related events,” Salesa said.
“National Meteorological Services also utilise this information in their service delivery through daily forecasts, monthly bulletins, and long-term outlooks, and those interested in this information are encouraged to contact their National Meteorological Service.”
The Pacific Regional Climate Centre Network, Climate and Oceans Support Programme (COSPPac) and SPREP help to provide the public and Pacific governments with accurate and helpful climate information, to assist them in planning and response, and engage effectively in international climate negotiations.
Also vital for climate change negotiations is the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which produces reports on climate data, projections, impacts and vulnerabilities.
These contain the best available information to make sure negotiations are grounded in climate science.