Natural disasters are on the rise due to climate change, displacing millions of people each year. A new international initiative is aiming to improve the way governments respond to such crises.
More frequent disasters – such as Cyclone Pam which struck Vanuatu this year – will leave Pacific islands struggling to recover.
Edgar Su/Reuters
As Prime Minister Tony Abbott attends the Pacific Island Forum summit today, attention has again turned to how the low-lying islands will deal with global warming.
Tanna Island locals replanting crops, only days after Cyclone Pam hit Vanuatu.
AAP/Dave Hunt
Food has been scarce for many rural people in Vanuatu since Cyclone Pam – but overall, they now have greater security of food supply than they did in the past.
One of tens of thousands of homes and buildings blown over across Vanuatu by Cyclone Pam in March 2015.
AAP Image/ Kris Paras
One of the most hotly debated questions in Vanuatu has been about how communities can rebuild so that they are safer and more resilient to future cyclones. That’s not as simple as you might think.
People in Vanuatu were quick to make the most of the resources they had after Cyclone Pam hit their homes – including these boys, Manu and Leo, photographed a week after the cyclone at a school housing residents evacuated from Teouma.
AAP/NEWZULU/Jeff Tan
This Sunday marks 100 days since Cyclone Pam hit Vanuatu, with ceremonies in villages across the nation to mourn the 11 people who died. Meanwhile, islands left brown in the aftermath are green again.
Efforts to rebuild Vanuatu’s economy may concentrate on tourism, but it’s wiser to diversify, despite the challenges.
Joseph M. Cheer
To rely on tourism to rebuild Vanuatu’s economy is lazy policy and economically fraught. There are other opportunities, despite the challenges.
Vanuatu has a well-co-ordinated disaster response system but limited material resources. Medical support is needed when a disaster like Cyclone Pam strikes.
EPA/UNICEF
The people of Vanuatu have always had to cope with extreme weather events, but natural disasters on the scale of Cyclone Pam test their strengths and leave areas of vulnerability exposed.
It’s hard to know for sure what role climate change played in the intensity of Cyclone Pam.
AAP Image/Dave Hunt
A causal relationship between cyclone behaviour and anthropogenic global warming is a very real possibility. But most climate scientists hesitate to attribute any single event to global warming.
Images of destruction in Vanuatu may sway tourists to stay away for up to 12 months.
AAP/UNICEF
Any public health assessment of Vanuatu should include the identification of immediate needs and associated risks, as well as put in plans for mitigating future natural disasters.
Australian has moved swiftly to fly relief aid and personnel to Vanuatu but has been less responsive to Pacific Islanders’ pleas to act on climate change.
AAP/Dave Hunt
The devastation to Vanuatu left in the wake of Cyclone Pam shows small islands in the Pacific need a climate insurance scheme, similar to what has been achieved in the Caribbean.
Destruction caused by Cyclone Pam is visible on the outskirts of Port Vila.
AAP Image/ Care Australia, Tom Perry