Impacts

Extreme Events

Climate Policy

Countries in the Pacific are making substantial progress in achieving SustainableDevelopment Goal 13 on climate action. However, the region needs to accelerateprogress towards achieving target 13.1 (strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity)and reverse current trends with a view to achieving other targets related toresilience to disasters (target 1.5 and target 11.5). Building resilience to extremeclimate events is foundational for achieving the 2030 Agenda for SustainableDevelopment. This requires a better understanding of specific risks affectingparticular regions and countries, and increased capacity to address them.

The State of the Climate in South-WestPacific 2020 is the first of its kind for thisregion and a milestone multi-agency effortto deliver informed climate analysis andclimate change trends.

State of the Climate 2020

2020 was the second or third warmest year on record in the South-West Pacific region. Depending on the data set, near-surface landand ocean temperatures averaged across the region were about0.37–0.44 °C above the 1981–2010 average

Temperature

South-West PacificClimate Indicators

The glaciers near Puncak Jaya are remnants of glaciers that haveexisted for around 5000 years and have been retreating sinceapproximately 1850 CE. Models predict that total ice loss can beexpected between 2024 and 2026 should current retreat ratescontinue.

Glacier Mass Balance

The ocean area of the region shows overall warming from 1982–2020, particularly in the Tasman Sea, the Indian and PacificOcean, and in the west of the Timor Sea where rates of warmingare three times faster than the global rate.

Sea Surface Temperature & Ocean Heat Content

Flooding affected the farsouth of New Zealand inearly February. A total of509 mm fell on 3 Februaryin Milford Sound, while theinland town of Lauder hadits wettest day on recordcausing numerousevacuations.

FLOODS

The unprecedented 2019-2020wildfire season in easternAustralia led to heavy loss oflife and property and severesmoke pollution, with directfire impacts, andcontamination of rivers by ashand debris, also leading tomajor losses of wildlife.

WILDFIRES

It was a relatively wet yearover many parts of Indonesia,extending south-east intoparts of Papua New Guinea,the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu,Fiji, Tonga and Samoa. Pekoa,Vanuatu and Pago Pago,American Samoa both hadtheir wettest years on record.

PRECIPITATION

In February, hightemperatures affected theentire Great Barrier Reefregion of Australia.Widespread coral bleachingwas reported, the third massbleaching event in the pastfive years.

MARINE HEAT WAVESTropical Cyclones Harold andYasa and Typhoon Goni led toextensive damage in theSolomon Islands, Vanuatu,Fiji, Vanuatu Tonga and thePhilippines. Typhoon Goni(Rolly) had one of the mostintense landfalls of anytropical cyclone on record.

TROPICAL CYCLONES

FOOD SECURITY & SOCIOECONOMICDEVELOPMENT

In the North Indian Ocean and in the western part of the tropicalPacific Ocean, the rates of sea-level rise are substantially higherthan the global mean, with significant implications for Small IslandDeveloping States (SIDS).

Sea Level Rise

In 2020, extreme weather events led to largedisruptions across various sectors, includingagricultural, with significant consequences forapproximately 2.7 million people who wereestimated to have been undernourished in theregion in 2020. In Vanuatu, Cyclone Harolddamaged between 22-66% of crops and causedapproximately VT 19.6 billion or US$ 177 million ofdamage to the agriculture sector.

In Fiji, Tropical Cyclone Yasa affected an area ofpredominantly subsistence agriculture, damagingapproximately 83% of total cropland.

DISPLACEMENT

Climate and weather events had majorand diverse impacts on populationmovements and on the vulnerability ofpeople on the move in the regionthroughout 2020.

The Phillipines was the most affectedcountry recording 4.4 million newdisplacements. Vanuatu was also hard-hit, particularly relative to its populationsize, with Cyclone Harold triggering80,000 new displacements -- nearly aquarter of the population.

Lead authors: Blair Trewin & SungEun Kim

Contribution to the UNFCCC SED2, November 2021, Glasgow