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© 2025 Island Innovation. All rights reserved.

    News

    Curated stories and analysis from islands and sustainability leaders worldwide.

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    Showing 9 of 508 news items in Climate Action
    Iceland saw record temperatures last year. So why are scientists predicting a ‘deep freeze’?
    Climate ActionMarch 11, 2026

    Iceland saw record temperatures last year. So why are scientists predicting a ‘deep freeze’?

    Excerpt from euronews.com According to the Icelandic Met Office, the national average temperature last year was 5.2°C. This is a 1.1°C increase from the average for the years 1991-2020 and the highest since records began. Temperatures were “well above average” for almost every month of the year, particularly during spring. In fact, in mid-May, a 10-day heatwave baked the country, with temperatures reaching a scorching high of 26.6°C at Egilsstaðir Airport. Annual rainfall was below average for the past 10 years across most of the country, but it still exceeded the 1991-2020 average in many locations. For every 1℃ rise in air temperature, the atmosphere can hold around seven per cent more moisture, which can lead to more intense and heavy rainfall.

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    Historic Pacific Islands Guidance on Climate Relocation Released
    Climate ActionMarch 11, 2026

    Historic Pacific Islands Guidance on Climate Relocation Released

    Excerpt from news.fundsforngos.org On March 4, 2026, Pacific Island governments launched the world’s first regional guidance on climate-related relocation grounded in human rights principles. The initiative aims to provide a framework for communities forced to move due to rising seas, coastal erosion, and extreme tides, ensuring that relocations are conducted with respect for human dignity and self-determination. The guidance was unveiled as Pacific leaders convened in Nadi, Fiji, to discuss pairing this landmark framework with the financial and technical support necessary for its effective implementation.

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    Scotland's largest uninhabited island to have rainforest restored
    Climate ActionMarch 2, 2026

    Scotland's largest uninhabited island to have rainforest restored

    Excerpt from thenational.scot SCOTLAND’S largest uninhabited island has become the focus of a major restoration project as its original Atlantic rainforest biome is set to be re-established. Taransay, a 790-hectare island off the west coast of Harris in the Outer Hebrides, is to undergo a major transformation as those behind the project say the Atlantic rainforest, once common on the western seaboard, has become one of the country’s most forgotten and fragmented habitats. The island’s owners, Adam and Cathra Kelliher, say they have taken a “deliberate” decision to step away from short-term commercial development and instead pursue a future grounded in ecological recovery and local employment.

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    Why location matters for the Pacific Pre-COP
    Climate ActionMarch 2, 2026

    Why location matters for the Pacific Pre-COP

    Excerpt from lowyinstitute.org When Australia bid to host the 2026 annual global climate change negotiations COP31, it envisioned a Pacific partnership that would centre climate dialogue around the concerns of vulnerable island nations. After Türkiye refused to withdraw its competing bid, Australia compromised. Türkiye would host the formal conference, while Australia presided over negotiations. Australia has also committed to support a Pacific-hosted Pre-COP meeting, a two-to-three-day preparatory gathering where ministers and senior officials from up to 50 different delegations shape expectations for the main conference. Now, Fiji and Palau are competing to be the venue for these talks. Both nations bring extensive climate credentials, but to maximise this opportunity for the benefit of the region, logistics and symbolic impact must be considered.

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    From repair to reinvention: Jamaica’s defining post-hurricane choice
    Climate ActionMarch 2, 2026

    From repair to reinvention: Jamaica’s defining post-hurricane choice

    Excerpt from jamaica-gleaner.com In the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa, the public conversation has centred on an understandably sensitive issue: should Jamaicans pay more to rebuild? Roads were washed away, schools closed their doors, small businesses absorbed losses they were never structured to withstand, and several parishes continue to assess damage that will take months – if not years – to fully repair. The instinct is to debate taxation. But the more meaningful question is not whether recovery costs money. It always does. The real issue is how Jamaica chooses to finance reconstruction – and what standard of rebuilding it is prepared to accept. Over the past decade, Jamaica made deliberate progress in reducing its debt-to-GDP ratio and stabilising its macroeconomic position. That discipline matters. It restored investor confidence and reduced the country’s exposure to external shocks. A sharp return to heavy borrowing would risk weakening those gains. At the same time, avoiding difficult fiscal decisions in the name of political comfort is not a strategy either. Every country that experiences severe disruption – whether through conflict, pandemic or natural disaster – must recalibrate. Recovery requires capital. The method of mobilisation determines whether a nation stabilises or slips into repetition.

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    When Climate Extremes Don’t Lead to Conflict: Evidence from the Pacific Islands
    Climate ActionFebruary 25, 2026

    When Climate Extremes Don’t Lead to Conflict: Evidence from the Pacific Islands

    Photo Credit and Excerpt from newsecuritybeat.org Pacific Island countries sit at the frontline of climate change. Many consist of small, low-lying islands, with long coastlines and vast ocean spaces between them. Livelihoods often depend on agriculture and fishing, and importing water or food is often infeasible or expensive. This makes those large ocean nations highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, such as storms, droughts, and rising sea levels. Given these vulnerabilities, analysts have expressed concerns that climate change could heighten various forms of socio-political conflict in the region. Yet the Pacific Island countries have received scarce attention in research on climate change and conflict. While recent scholarship has begun to explore possible pathways between climate stress and conflict in the Pacific Island countries, the region remains comparatively understudied. This is especially surprising given the regions’ high climate vulnerability and increasing geopolitical relevance.

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    Government announces €6.5 million Creative Climate Action fund III
    Climate ActionFebruary 25, 2026

    Government announces €6.5 million Creative Climate Action fund III

    Excerpt from gov.ie Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport, Patrick O’Donovan, and Minister for Climate, Energy and Environment, Darragh O’Brien, today announced a new €6.5 million Creative Climate Action Fund, which will support imaginative, large-scale creative, cultural and artistic initiatives that help communities engage with climate change and empower citizens to make meaningful behavioural change. The Creative Climate Action Fund III is an initiative of the Creative Ireland Programme in partnership with the Shared Island Initiative and the Department of Climate, Energy and Environment. The Creative Climate Action Fund III (2026-2029) will support ambitious, durational projects that bring together expertise from the arts and culture sector, climate science, and community engagement, and is delivered through a cross-Government partnership. This Fund is seeking proposals that respond creatively to key national climate priorities, including those set out in the Climate Action Plan 2025, the National Dialogue on Climate Action, and the work of the Just Transition Commission.

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    Why Greenland plays an outsized role in climate change science
    Climate ActionFebruary 11, 2026

    Why Greenland plays an outsized role in climate change science

    Excerpt from theconversation.com “Observing Greenland from a helicopter,” one scientist wrote last year, “the main problem is one of comprehending scale. I thought we were skimming low over the waves of a fjord, before … realising what I suspected were floating shards of ice were in fact icebergs the size of office blocks. I thought we were hovering high in the sky over a featureless icy plane below, before bumping down gently onto ice only a few metres below us.” This is the view described by Durham glaciologist Tom Chudley, when writing about his research showing the Greenland ice sheet isn’t just melting – it’s falling apart. Chudley and his colleagues found crevasses are growing fast, channelling meltwater deep into the ice sheet, accelerating its slide into the ocean.

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    Cyclones get names but deadly heatwaves don’t. Should Australia personalise severe weather?
    Climate ActionFebruary 4, 2026

    Cyclones get names but deadly heatwaves don’t. Should Australia personalise severe weather?

    Excerpt from theconversation.com Australia’s climate is changing rapidly due to rising global greenhouse gas emissions. Extreme weather events such as tropical cyclones, east coast low pressure systems, flash floods, droughts, bushfires, severe storms, and both land and marine heatwaves are becoming increasingly common, as the National Climate Risk Assessment makes clear. These can overwhelm emergency and medical services, damage infrastructure, and lead to deaths and morbidities. Yet only some extreme weather events receive names. Last November, for example, the Northern Territory was hit by Severe Tropical Cyclone Fina, while much of Australia was about to swelter through an unnamed heatwave.

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