When I read the latest State of the Climate report from the BoM and CSIRO, my first thought was this: Australian children are heading towards the pain, instability and disaster that Pacific children know only too well. Australian children might still avoid that fate – children and young people in the Pacific need action right now.
The start of November marks the start of the cyclone season in the Pacific, and for many of us, it also marks months of anxiety and dread. I come from Vanuatu and Tuvalu, two nations whose greenhouse gas emissions are negligible, with Vanuatu in fact net negative for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Even so, it is our countries that are bearing the brunt of the climate crisis. We see the damage in our communities every day and children, the ones who have contributed the least to climate change, are paying the highest price.
The reality of my childhood, like that of many Pacific children, has been interrupted by disaster after disaster. My earliest memory of a climate disaster, I was no more than eight years old. My brothers came to pick me up from school in the middle of the day due to an impending cyclone. The nervous energy surrounding me was overwhelming. The fear, the anxiety, and the uncertainty lingered as I waited for my brothers to take me home. Every cyclone warning brought with it not just fear, but also disruption to my education, my family life, and the stability of my home.
For many of us, these disasters have become part of our lives. At times, we were lucky, and the storm warnings would pass with minimal damage. Other times, we weren’t. I cannot tell you how many days of school I missed, how many weeks of education were lost because my family needed me at home to help rebuild, regroup, and recover. Our entire economy and development grind to a halt with every disaster.
Climate change is robbing Pacific children of their future. How can we enjoy our youth, how can we focus on school and our dreams, when we are constantly rebuilding our homes, salvaging what little we can from the wreckage? Every year, we watch our progress reset, held back by the unrelenting forces of climate fuelled disasters. At first, as a child, I didn’t understand. But as I grew older, I became angry. Angry at the injustice of it all. Angry at how our future is being stolen while the rest of the world watches.
This is the message I want world leaders to hear: the Pacific is home to over 1.2 million children spread across 660 islands. These are children whose lives are being shaped by a crisis they did not cause. And every year, as the world hesitates to act, the window for saving our future grows smaller.
In 2023, Vanuatu was struck by three major cyclones in a single year—Tropical Cyclone Judy, Tropical Cyclone Kevin, and Tropical Cyclone Lola. These cyclones devastated our islands, with nearly 80 percent of the population affected. Families were left without homes, entire communities torn apart. I was living in Melbourne during this time, and I cannot describe the helplessness I felt being so far away, not knowing what was happening back home, relying only on updates from others.
Every time we pick ourselves up, another devastation comes. And we ask ourselves: how much longer can we keep going like this?
We Pacific Islanders are doing everything we can to build our resilience to the impacts of climate change. I know organisations like Save the Children and other locally led agencies are doing whatever they can to support my communities, but we need world leaders to step up. In Vanuatu, Save the Children is delivering the largest community-based adaption project ever delivered in the Pacific with the support of the Green Climate Fund, supporting climate-vulnerable rural and coastal communities.
I wanted to become an ambassador for Save the Children Vanuatu because the organisation is working hard to amplify the voices of young people on climate, but we have always raised our voices, we have adapted, we have done the work. But no matter how resilient we are, no matter how strong we stand, there is only so much we can do. This is not just our fight—it is a global fight.
Vanuatu and its young people are leading the charge, advocating for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and pushing for global temperatures to be kept well below 1.5 degrees Celsius as stipulated by the Paris Agreement. But we cannot do this alone. We need the larger, wealthier nations, like Australia, —those who are the biggest contributors to climate change—to step up and take responsibility.
We need serious global collaboration and urgent commitment to climate mitigation, disaster risk reduction, adaptation and loss and damage. Right now, the world is off track. Emission targets are being missed, funding for adaptation is inadequate, and children in Vanuatu and across the Pacific are being left to face the consequences.
The time to act is now. Not next year, not in a decade—now. We are not asking for favours; we are demanding the right to survive. As we stare down the barrel of another cyclone season, we are demanding the chance to thrive, to live without fear, and to build a future where we can grow, learn, and dream without the constant threat of destruction.