We've ramped up our action on export coal as leaders meet for the Pacific Islands Forum in Cairns.

At 6.30am this morning, Greenpeace activists shut down coal loading at Hay Point Coal Terminal in Mackay, Queensland – one of the largest coal export terminals in the world.

The 10 activists have scaled a 50-metre high coal loader and locked onto the structure to stop its operation.

LATEST UPDATE 3.30PM
The four climbers are still locked on and have stopped operations for 10 hours, saving 54,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.

UPDATE 11AM
Four climbers remain on the coal terminal, where operations have now been shut down for over four hours. See images

UPDATE 9.50AM
Two activists have been cut off and eight remain locked to the coal terminal.

One of the activists from Fiji is locked onto the top of the coal loader, where he can see more than 12 coal ships waiting to load. Here is his unique view from the top as a Pacific Islander who lives with climate change impacts:

"There are mountains of coal. It is a bit overwhelming - tonnes and tonnes of it. Everything I see here means to me that there's one more family that will be affected, one more child that won't have the future they deserve."