Jotham Napat, Director at the National Meteorolgical Service in Vanuatu
© Greenpeace/Alcock

Our largest and fastest ship, Esperanza, is now heading towards Cairns, Australia for the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) meeting being held next week.

After nearly two months in the Pacific, working with Pacific Islanders on the frontline of climate change, the Greenpeace crew have an urgent message for the Australian government and the other regional leaders attending the meeting.

We have urgent messages from the frontline of climate change to deliver. While in the Cook Islands, Samoa and Vanuatu for the ‘Pacific Voices’ ship tour, Greenpeace met with government officials, environmental NGOs, community leaders, schools and church groups to talk about climate change and the devastating impacts it is having on people’s lives in the Pacific.

Our Pacific team talked to mothers, fathers, chiefs, children, teachers, activists, scientists, doctors and heads of state. They spoke of rising sea levels, soil erosion, extreme weather events, changing weather patterns, and warming sea temperatures affecting fish stocks and coral reefs.

Read more about this over on our Australia Pacific website and watch the video of a Mrs Tuakan Neiao, a Pacific mother of 10 and leader of the Women’s Federation on the remote island of Nassau, in the Cook Islands.

As a new report released by Oxfam, estimated that 75 million people from the Asia-Pacific region could be looking for new homes by mid-century - three Pacific Islanders from three different nations are on a national speaking tour of Australia to tell people of the effects which the changing climate is having on their homes. They will also be at the PIF meeting next week with us. You can read their stories over on news.com.au's GreenBlog.