Introduction by Croakey: Leaders in the Pacific Island region have called COP29 a failure for not delivering progress and finance needed to support them, the frontline communities, through the climate crisis.
Below, Isabelle Zhu-Maguire, PhD candidate at the School of Regulation and Governance within the Australian National University, provides an update on some critical health challenges in the Pacific Islands, as well as some good health news in Fiji.
Isabelle Zhu-Maguire writes:
Whilst writing this third Pacific public health update for Croakey I realised that each of these articles has prominently featured the Pacific Island regions’ participation in an international conference.
This month is certainly no different with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) hosting its biggest event of the year, COP29 in Azerbaijan. It cannot be understated how important this event is for the Pacific.
The consistency of international conferences featured in these updates is extremely indicative of the ‘regionalism’ that the Pacific is very well known for. As small states, often with limited financial and human capacity for international negotiations, Pacific Islands have traditionally unified their positions to advocate for their experiences and perspectives to be heard at these global fora.
Pacific regionalism was under pressure at this year’s COP with Papua New Guinea pulling out of negotiation the week prior citing their frustration with progress within the UNFCCC. However, other Pacific states were very quick to reassure the world that they would maintain their tight-knit negotiating bloc.
This Pacific health news update overviews some of the key outcomes for the Pacific from COP29 – including some the key disappointments – highlight some of the major pressures on healthcare systems in the Pacific this month, showcase some of the specific updates from Fiji and briefly overview some other health updates from the region this past month.
Disappointment for the Pacific
This COP was pitched to be the finance COP with Pacific Islands joining many other ‘Global South’ countries negotiating for an ambitious New Collective Quantifiable Goal of US$1 trillion in assistance.
However, the new finance goal that was finalised constituted US$300 billion as an annual target by 2035 and is very reliant on loans rather than grants.
Rufino Varea, Regional Director of the Pacific Islands Climate Action Network, told Pacific News Service (PINA):
What was passed in Baku is not a deal; it’s a death sentence for millions. The Pacific Islands have been clear: climate finance must be grants-based and responsive to the needs of frontline communities. Instead, developed countries are handing us debt while dismantling the principles of equity and justice that the Paris Agreement was built on. This is a betrayal, plain and simple.”
The COP also saw a stalling progress on the Loss and Damage Fund and the Just Transition work program.
Richard Gokrun, Executive Director, Tuvalu Climate Action Network told PINA:
For the Pacific, and for Tuvalu where each day the sea encroaches to swallow our atolls, this outcome is personal. Every fraction of a degree in warming translates into lost lives, cultures, and homelands. Yet, the calls of the Pacific and other vulnerable nations were silenced in Baku. From the weakened Loss and Damage fund to the rollback on Just Transition principles, this COP has failed to deliver justice on any front.”
Similarly, Kiribati Climate Action Network’s Robert Karoro told RNZ Pacific that the Baku COP was a “failure on every front”.
Health updates from Fiji
It was a big month for health in Fiji.
At COP29, Fiji launched its first health climate adaptation plan – one of the first in the Pacific. This adaptation plan continues on from the Climate Change and Health Strategic Action Plan (CCHSAP) Fiji had from 2016-2022 and is closely aligned to the current National Adaptation Plan 2019-2024.
As described by the Pacific Islands News Association who was at the launch:
Endorsed by the Government of Fiji as its health sector’s response to the health impacts of climate change, the FHAP [Fiji Health Adaptation Plan] is designed to empower Fijians to develop, implement, and monitor robust, health-focused adaptation strategies which will systematically integrate health into the broader national climate adaptation plan and help build resilience in our health system and our community at all levels.”
Fiji also saw other good health news this month with the opening of a new 100-bed Pacific Specialist Healthcare Hospital (PHS). Importantly, the hospital is offering ‘get treated now, pay later’ services for patients who can show that they face financial difficulties.
RNZ Pacific reported on the opening of the hospital, highlighting that this hospitals’ cardiology department is particularly important as it has the potential to save patients $50,000 and the need to travel to places like India to get open-heart surgeries.
Pressures on Pacific healthcare systems
Healthcare systems in the Pacific are often under a lot of pressure being understaffed (see previous Pacific health update), under-resourced and catering for large populations of civilians that live in remote locations.
In light of these challenges, this month saw the launch of the Sustainability and Resilience in Pacific Island Health Systems report by Centre for Pacific and Global Health at the University of Auckland and the Centre for Asia Pacific Resilience and Innovation (CAPRI).
The report focussed on Tonga, Marshall Islands, and Vanuatu as representatives of the three sub-regions of the Pacific – Polynesia, Micronesia and Melanesia respectively.
The authors of the report evaluated the health systems of the case study nations across seven categories including population health, environmental sustainability, workforce, medicines and technology, service delivery, financing, and governance.
The report specifically highlights the severe gaps in funding for healthcare across the region. Sir Collin Tukuitonga, Director of Centre for Pacific and Global Health and report author, told RNZ Pacific, “there is nowhere near enough money, absolutely not enough money”.
Another major finding was that workforce capacity is severely lacking with many Pacific Islanders trained in healthcare migrating overseas to places like Australia where they will be paid more.
It was also highlighted that where Australia and New Zealand institute new healthcare programs, they usually bring their own personnel, which mitigates needs for upskilling the Pacific healthcare workforce – this is to the detriment of long-term stability of these systems.
Similar discussions about healthcare were had in other parts of the Pacific this month. The Cook Islands, for example, is in discussion with New Zealand for a new Dialysis unit.
Communicable diseases
Concerning outbreaks of communicable diseases were reported in various parts of the Pacific this month.
In the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), the importing of live poultry and hatching eggs from Hawaii has been banned. This move by the CNMI government has been instituted as multiple cases of bird flu were detected on the Hawaiian Island of O’hau. This ban comes as CMNI maintains bans on poultry imports from the mainland United States in similar efforts to prevent bird flu from spreading across the archipelago nation.
This November saw New Zealand declare whooping cough an epidemic with 263 cases detected in only four weeks. Concerningly, Samoa reported a case of whooping cough very soon after this announcement. The Samoa Ministry of health cited concerns over vaccination rates in Samoa with vaccines for people over seven years old not yet available in the Island nation.
About the author
Isabelle Zhu-Maguire is a PhD candidate at the School of Regulation and Governance within the Australian National University. Her thesis investigates the ways in which Australia listens and responds to the climate advocacy of Pacific Island Nations.
She has conducted extensive research into the experiences of women in Afghanistan and their perspectives and realities living through conflict, oppression, and climate change.
Isabelle has also been advocate for greater youth inclusion within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Read previous editions of the Pacific Islands health wrap here:
Amid calls for critical climate action, the Pacific Islands face significant health challenges
See Croakey’s archive of articles on global health
