SUVA, Fiji — Climate change is already shaking the foundations of Pacific communities, and world leaders need to see that for themselves, Fiji’s Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Biman Prasad said Wednesday as he threw his support behind Australia’s bid to co-host COP31 with the Pacific.
“Climate change is the single greatest threat to our people, our peace, and our Pacific way of life. It is the most direct, the cruellest, and the harshest outcome that we are preparing for,” he said.
Prasad was speaking on the Political Leaders on Climate Security panel during the Pacific Regional and National Security Conference in Suva, where he did not hold back in warning that the region is already grappling with the consequences of a warming planet.
He described the Pacific’s response as one made “on a war footing”—a crisis that is unfolding too fast and too deep for slow-moving global mechanisms to catch up.
“We can adapt now—over the next decade—but that window is closing fast. For some communities, it’s already too late. Loss and damage finance is not a luxury; it is a necessity. The fund must be properly resourced and delivered at speed,” he said.
Behind his words was the lived experience of island nations that have seen rising seas swallow land, cyclones destroy roads and homes, and freshwater systems polluted by saltwater intrusion.
Prasad said governments across the region are already being forced to stretch thin public budgets to rebuild what nature keeps tearing down—roads, ports, water systems, homes.
“The fiscal burden from rebuilding roads, ports, water systems, and housing after each climate event is immense. This cannot be our new normal. The international community is doing less than 10 percent of its share—if even that,” he said.
While acknowledging the agreement of a new global climate finance target at COP29, he made clear that pledges mean little without delivery—and delivery is coming too slow.
He called for structural solutions, including the establishment of a regional development bank and support for the Pacific Resilience Facility—designed to fund investments in disaster preparedness and long-term adaptation.
But the most impassioned moment came when he defended the Pacific’s right to host the world’s most important climate summit alongside Australia.
“To those fighting to keep COP31 away from the Pacific – what are you afraid of? Are you so afraid to look at the Pacific’s displaced people in the eye and say you are sorry?” he said.
The Deputy Prime Minister called for stronger regional unity, including practical cooperation on relocation, marine protection, and visa-free movement across a “Blue Pacific.”
“There can be no peace in the Pacific without climate risk being mainstreamed across everything we do – on land and across our seas,” he said, reaffirming Fiji’s support for the Ocean of Peace vision.
The Pacific Regional and National Security Conference gathered political leaders, regional experts, and security professionals to confront how climate change is reshaping the security landscape in the region. For Prasad, the message was clear: the world must act—and it must act now—before more Pacific communities pay the ultimate price.
