Organised by:

• Solomon Islands National University (SINU)
• National University of Samoa (NUS)
• Pacific Climate Change Centre (PCCC)
• Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP)
• Te Herenga Waka - Victoria University of Wellington (VUW)
• Solomon Islands Government/Ministry of Environment, Climate Change, Disaster Management and Meteorology (SIG/MECDM)

In Partnership with

• Earth Sciences

The Pacific Oceans Pacific Climate Change Conference (POPCCC) is a Pacific-owned, Pacific-led event organized to provide an informative and collaborative Pacific research platform for academics, researchers, climate change practitioners, private sector, civil society, and students to share their research findings with Pacific based and global researchers. 

Previous editions of this conference were hosted in Wellington, New Zealand (2016 and 2018), online in 2020 and most recently held in Apia, Samoa in 2024. The Pacific Oceans Climate Change Conference is a multi-disciplinary conference, bringing together experts from the private, public, and civil society, and a variety of participants from the arts, faith communities, industry, and other backgrounds to look at ways where, together, we can all play our part to address climate change. The conference is a platform to examine the persistent challenges faced by Pacific Island countries in developing and improving adaptation strategies and ensuring easier access to finance.

A call for abstract on climate change research papers and projects being implemented in the Pacific was the convening medium to draw participants sharing their research findings, solutions challenges and opportunities.

The Pacific Climate Change Centre hosted at SPREP being a co-convener forges practical and innovative solutions to address climate change and engages with leading Pacific researchers and institutions to accelerate climate action aligned to its lead role on supporting applied research and science to services aligned to the needs of Pacific communities through the Pacific Climate Change Research Roadmap 2025-2030, as the key regional climate change research guide for the Pacific. The roadmap identified priority research areas to strengthen climate resilience in the Pacific by addressing knowledge gaps in adaptation, mitigation, and loss and damage. It emphasizes collaborative, regionally relevant research that informs policy and practice, supports evidence-based decision-making aligned to national and regional climate strategies.

Conference Theme

Climate resilient development requires a combination of ambitious action on mitigation and sustainable and equitable adaptation solutions for those impacts that cannot be avoided. As many Pacific nations and territories will reach the limits of adaptation at 1.5C of global warming, the theme of the Fifth Pacific Ocean Pacific Climate Change Conference is “Amplifying One Pacific voice on 1.5 to stay alive”. This underscores the urgent need to avoid exceeding this threshold, which would overwhelm adaptation capacities and cause irreversible impacts to the biodiversity, livelihoods, and ways of lives of the Pacific Communities from sea level rise, extreme weather events and ocean acidification.   

The IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (2022) reinforces this urgency, warning that without immediate and large-scale action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and investing in adaptation strategies, the world will face catastrophic consequences. For the Pacific, the difference between 1.5°C and 2°C of warming is profound—2°C will surpass the region’s ability to adapt, threatening its very survival.

This year’s POPCCC will emphasize research and solutions that make the 1.5°C goal feasible, aligned with the Paris Agreement pathways. By focusing on evidence-based strategies, the conference also aims to strengthen regional resilience and advocate for Pacific’s unified voice in global climate action towards greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions targets. There will also be a focus on evidence-based adaptation strategies and solutions needed to build community resilience to committed climate change risks and impacts that will unavoidable.

Read more about this year's Conference in the Concept Note.