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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 251 news items in Policy & Governance
    Japan’s first female prime minister doesn’t call herself a feminist — but the country needs her to tackle sexism in science
    Policy & GovernanceNovember 16, 2025

    Japan’s first female prime minister doesn’t call herself a feminist — but the country needs her to tackle sexism in science

    Photo credit: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty via Nature.com Excerpt from nature.com Japan struggles with gender equity. It ranked 118th out of 148 countries in the 2025 Global Gender Gap Index. Against this backdrop, the election of a woman, Sanae Takaichi, as Japan’s prime minister on 21 October is a milestone. But will her rise to the nation’s highest office serve as a catalyst for changing social attitudes? As a woman and a neuroscientist, I have been involved in large surveys on gender equality in Japanese academia, and I feel conflicted. There is hope. Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its coalition partner, the Japan Innovation Party (JIP), have released an agreement that pledges to “substantially expand” grants for scientific research and to “establish a system granting legal effect to the use of maiden names”. Both are promising for researchers, but the future of Japanese science will depend on how these policies are implemented.

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    ‘Dream realised’: East Timor becomes ASEAN’s 11th member
    Policy & GovernanceNovember 2, 2025

    ‘Dream realised’: East Timor becomes ASEAN’s 11th member

    Excerpt from aljazeera.com East Timor has joined the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as the bloc’s 11th member state in a move Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao hailed as a “dream realised”. The flag of East Timor, which is also known as Timor-Leste, was added to ASEAN’s other 10 on Sunday at a formal ceremony at the bloc’s annual summit at the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, drawing loud applause.

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    How a shape-changing island in the Amazon became the center of a decades-long border dispute
    Policy & GovernanceNovember 2, 2025

    How a shape-changing island in the Amazon became the center of a decades-long border dispute

    Excerpt from edition.cnn.com In the heart of the Amazon Basin, where the borders and cultures of Peru, Colombia and Brazil converge, a tiny, shape-shifting island has become the unlikely setting for a diplomatic tug of war. Santa Rosa is an island in the Amazon River. There’s no agreement on when it emerged from the water, but official settlement began in the 1970s. Today, it’s home to around 3,000 people. But the land they live on isn’t stable; Santa Rosa’s shape and size shifts with the river’s flow. Each year, sandbanks form and disappear, as the main channel carves new paths. “If God wanted, the river would change and even Santa Rosa could disappear,” said Gladys Hari Leiva, a hotel owner who has lived on the island for 21 years.

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    NZ warns Pacific sovereignty at risk in deep sea resource race
    Policy & GovernanceNovember 2, 2025

    NZ warns Pacific sovereignty at risk in deep sea resource race

    Photo: Pete Hegseth / X via PMN.co.nz Excerpt from pmn.co.nz New Zealand’s Defence Minister Judith Collins has warned that Pacific island nations are under growing pressure from global powers competing for control of the region’s rich seabed minerals and fisheries. Collins, who visited Washington last week, says the Pacific is becoming a “strategic crossroads” for aid, development, influence, resources, and security. She says the Pacific was becoming a “strategic crossroads”, not just for aid or development, but for influence, resources and security.

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    Don’t let EU Islands sink under the ‘Coastal’ label
    Policy & GovernanceNovember 1, 2025

    Don’t let EU Islands sink under the ‘Coastal’ label

    Excerpt from cpmr.org The CPMR and its Islands Commission have consistently welcomed the European Commission’s commitment to a dedicated EU Strategy for Islands, as initially presented in the 2025 Cohesion mid-term review communication. This document acknowledged that island and outermost regions face unique challenges – from energy dependency and limited accessibility to labour shortages and climate vulnerability – requiring targeted policy responses. However, the 2026 European Commission Work Programme, as presented today in front of the European parliament, raises serious concerns regarding the much-anticipated EU Strategy for Islands, as it suggests that it would be merged into a broader EU Islands & Coastal Communities Strategy. The CPMR warns that such an approach would dilute the distinctive features of insularity within a wider territorial category, risking the loss of focus on islands’ structural challenges.

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    Islanders take council to court over new school location
    Policy & GovernanceOctober 27, 2025

    Islanders take council to court over new school location

    Excerpt from bbc.com Islanders in Mull are taking their council to court over the decision of where to build a new school. Argyll and Bute Council decided earlier this year to build the new £43m school campus close to the current high school in Tobermory. Many parents wanted a more central location so that pupils in the south of the island would no longer have to travel by ferry to Oban for schooling and stay in hostels during the week. The case will be heard at the Court of Session in Edinburgh later and a decision is expected further down the line.

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    ‘Humanitarian’ visa must be created for Pacific Islanders displaced by climate crisis, experts say
    Policy & GovernanceOctober 19, 2025

    ‘Humanitarian’ visa must be created for Pacific Islanders displaced by climate crisis, experts say

    Excerpt from theguardian.com ‘Humanitarian’ visa must be created for Pacific Islanders displaced by climate crisis, experts say Calls for reform to allow people across the Pacific threatened by climate crisis to more easily migrate, particularly to New Zealand Lagipoiva Cherelle Jackson Thu 9 Oct 2025 02.02 BST Share Climate and migration experts are calling for urgent action to create legal pathways for people displaced by the climate crisis, as a new report highlights the scale of the problem across the Pacific. Research by Amnesty International released on Thursday found current immigration systems are inadequate for Pacific Islanders seeking safety and stability, as rising seas threaten to make their homelands uninhabitable. Amnesty has called on New Zealand – home to the world’s largest Pacific diaspora – to urgently reform its policies to provide “rights-based approach to climate-related displacement”. “This would include offering a dedicated humanitarian visa,” the report said. It also argued providing safe options for those most severely affected by climate change through humanitarian visas is “part of states’ obligations to ensure protection for people whose human rights are being threatened”. The report highlights how Tuvalu and Kiribati, where most land lies just 2 to 3 metres above sea level, face existential threats from rising seas, coastal erosion, and extreme weather. These impacts already undermine access to clean water, food, and safe housing. According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), at least 50,000 Pacific Islanders each year face the risk of displacement from climate impacts such as sea level rise and extreme weather. More than half of the Pacific Islands’ population live within 500 metres of the coast, the WMO said, where sea levels are rising faster than the global average and driving pressures for climate-induced migration.

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    COP climate talks are 'heartbreak' for Pacific Islands. Here is why they want to host them
    Policy & GovernanceOctober 19, 2025

    COP climate talks are 'heartbreak' for Pacific Islands. Here is why they want to host them

    Photo credit: Sergei Grits / AP via ABC.net.au Excerpt from abc.net.au Joseph Sikulu's long-haul journey home to the Pacific has felt fruitless after the recent world climate talks. It has become a "heartbreaking" exercise seeing the annual United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP) summit achieve so little of the action needed for Pacific Islands to survive climate change, the Tongan-Australian climate activist said. But he still makes the multi-day trip to the negotiations each year, regardless of their slow progress on curbing carbon emissions.

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    Bonaire residents take Netherlands to court over climate
    Policy & GovernanceOctober 17, 2025

    Bonaire residents take Netherlands to court over climate

    Photo credit: dbvirago / Getty Images via Euractiv.com Excerpt from euractiv.com Residents on a tiny island off the coast of Venezuela and NGO Greenpeace on Tuesday urged the Netherlands to take action on the climate crisis, at the opening of a trial in The Hague. Bonaire – one of the Dutch territories worst-hit by the climate crisis, according to Greenpeace – demands through the courts that the Dutch government develops concrete plans to protect the island and reduce CO2 emissions to zero by 2040.The trial at The Hague is a first for Europe and follows an advisory opinion issued by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in July, which provides a legal interpretation of international climate law. “Climate change is not a distant threat for us … Where we used to work, play, walk, or fish during the day, the heat is now often unbearable,” Bonaire resident and farmer Onnie Emerenciana told the court. A 2022 study by Amsterdam’s Vrije Universiteit showed that as much as a fifth of Bonaire could be swallowed up by the sea by the end of the century. Sporting a scarf in the Bonaire flag colours, Emerenciana warned that “parents say their children can no longer walk to school as they used to … Outdoor games have been replaced by indoor activities behind closed doors”.

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