In the Pacific, Unkept U.S. Promises on Climate Cut Deep

Asia Pacific|In the Pacific, Unkept U.S. Promises on Climate Cut Deep

Fred Conning pulled up Google Earth on his phone, and zoomed in on the coastline that had been the backdrop of his childhood in a small village in the Solomon Islands.

Here was the beach of white sands where he would splash about and while away the days. Here was the point along the shoreline where banana trees stood. Here was a sand dune.

Now, it’s all sea.

“For us on the coast, the indication that things are changing is obvious,” said Mr. Conning, a 55-year-old engineer who now lives in the capital, Honiara.

On the other side of town, a few miles down the dusty, traffic-choked main road, the threat of climate change was high on the agenda at the annual gathering of the leaders of 18 Pacific island nations and territories. They conferred on ideas about what could be done to address a crisis they are most at the mercy of, and yet least empowered to ward off.

In recent years, these meetings of the Pacific Islands Forum, the region’s top intergovernmental body, have witnessed splashy announcements and pledges from the United States on support for climate adaptation and disaster preparedness. Washington was re-engaging with the region after years of disregard, just as China was expanding its interests there.

But many of those U.S. promises have been scrapped or hang in limbo. The Trump administration abruptly shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development, pulled back on a host of climate policies, including exiting the Paris Agreement, and gutted other aid and development programs.