Overview:
**Pacific Elders’ Voice is calling for a major shift in how the region confronts the climate crisis — from seeking assistance to demanding accountability.** Ahead of the 55th Pacific Islands Forum Leaders’ Meeting in Palau, the group is urging an end to fossil fuel expansion, grant-based climate finance, protection of Pacific maritime zones and stronger regional unity in dealing with outside partners.
By: L.N. Reklai
KOROR, Palau (Aug. 30, 2026)— Pacific leaders should treat climate change not as a plea for assistance but as a matter of rights, accountability and international law, the Pacific Elders’ Voice said in a declaration issued as Pacific leaders gather in Palau.
The “Suva + Declaration on Climate Change,” released for the 55th Pacific Islands Forum Leaders’ Meeting, marks the 10th anniversary of the 2015 Suva Declaration and argues that many of the Pacific’s longstanding climate demands have since been reinforced by international legal findings.
The declaration points to the unanimous July 2025 advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice, requested at the initiative of Vanuatu and Pacific youth, as well as opinions from the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. It also cites a 2026 U.N. General Assembly resolution and the International Law Commission’s work on sea-level rise.
The Pacific Elders’ Voice said Pacific peoples are “not petitioners for charity but holders of rights,” emphasizing that compensation for wrongful harm should not be treated as aid.
The declaration calls for an end to fossil fuel subsidies and policies supporting the expansion of fossil fuel production. It also urges states to issue no new fossil fuel exploration or production licenses and to negotiate a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty.
It further calls for countries to align their national climate commitments with the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, with major historical emitters and countries with greater capacity expected to act first and go further. The group also wants those commitments made binding under domestic law.
Climate finance is another central demand.
The elders renewed the Pacific’s call for adaptation finance to be provided entirely as grants rather than loans, arguing that Pacific island countries should not have to increase their debt to address damage they contributed little to causing. The declaration also supports debt cancellation or relief as a form of reparation.
The group said the international Loss and Damage Fund must be capitalized at a scale that reflects documented losses and provide direct access to affected countries. It said compensation should recognize not only economic losses but also the loss of land, burial grounds, language, reefs and community relationships.
The declaration also places particular emphasis on protecting Pacific sovereignty as sea levels rise.
It calls for Pacific countries’ statehood, sovereignty and membership in international organizations to remain secure regardless of climate-related sea-level rise. Maritime zones that have been established and notified should continue without reduction, it said.
For Pacific island nations, the issue has direct economic implications because tuna access fees provide the largest single source of public revenue for several countries, the declaration said.
The elders also called for climate-related mobility pathways that allow people to move with dignity rather than under forced circumstances, while protecting nationality and preventing statelessness.
But perhaps its strongest political message is directed inward, urging Pacific governments to protect regional unity.
The declaration warns that an expanding network of bilateral arrangements could weaken the Pacific’s collective negotiating position. It calls on governments not to enter bilateral agreements that commit a country to less than what the region has collectively agreed and to disclose such arrangements to regional bodies beforehand.
The Pacific Elders’ Voice said the region’s strength has never been its size, but its ability to arrive at international negotiations with one position.
“A decade ago, in Suva our Leaders described what was coming and were told it was premature,” the declaration says. “The World Court has now said, unanimously, much of what they said then.”
The group said the declaration is not a request for consideration but a statement of legal obligations, documented harm and the Pacific’s determination to hold both together.
The Pacific Elders’ Voice includes former Pacific leaders and senior regional figures, including former Kiribati President Anote Tong, former Palau President Tommy Remengesau Jr., former Tuvalu Prime Minister Enele Sopoaga and former Pacific Islands Forum Secretary-General Dame Meg Taylor.