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The report of the State of the Climate in the South-West Pacific 2023 provides details regarding temperature, precipitation, tropical cyclones, extreme events and their socioeconomic impacts. The transition form La Nina to El Nino conditions in the course of 2023 influenced weather and climate patterns in the region. However although the 2023/2024 El Nino event in ending, climate change continues to accelerate.

Global-mean sea level is rising and accelerating as a direct consequence of human-induced global warming. This rise int he sea level is driven primarily by two factors: the melting of land ice and the expansion of seawater as it warms.

The maps in thsi report highlight how factors such as the rapid deterioration of biodiversity, the degradation of land and stress on water resources, lower the capacity of human systems to withstand hazards that are occurring more frequently and with greater intensity. The maps in this report highlight a number of these resilience deficits that are holding back achievement of key sustainable development goals.

Sea level rise results from the melting of ice sheets and glaciers and the expansion of seawater as it warms, caused by human-induced climate change. Coastal cities and settlements are particularly at risk of climate and ocean impacts and continue to attract an ever growing population which could exceed one billion people by 2050.

Throughout its history, Earth’s climate has varied, reflecting the complex interactions and dependencies of the solar, oceanic, terrestrial, atmospheric, and living components that make up planet Earth’s systems. For at least the last million years, our world has experienced cycles of warming and cooling that take approximately 100,000 years to complete. Over the course of each cycle, global average temperatures have fallen and then risen again by about 9°F (5°C), each time taking Earth into an ice age and then warming it again. This cycle is believed associated with regular changes in Earth’s orbit that alter the intensity of solar energy the planet receives. Earth’s climate has also been influenced on very long timescales by changes in ocean circulation that result from plate tectonic movements. Earth’s climate has changed abruptly at times, sometimes as a result of slower natural processes such as shifts in ocean circulation, sometimes due to sudden events such as massive volcanic eruptions. Species and ecosystems have either adapted to these past climate variations or perished.