German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has assured the Pacific island states of her continued support in the fight against the consequences of climate change.
"The climate crisis is literally washing the ground away from under the feet of the people here," she said during a visit to Fiji, the first German foreign minister to visit the island.
"We will not leave the region alone, not alone with the greatest security challenge of this century, the climate crisis."
Fiji is one of the 14 island states in the South Pacific that account for a negligible proportion of global emissions of climate-damaging gases, but whose very existence is threatened by the consequences of climate change.
The more than 1,000 Marshall Islands, for example, most of whose land area is barely more than two metres above sea level, could sink into the Pacific Ocean in just a few decades if global warming continues to melt the polar ice unchecked.
According to an assessment report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC) last year, the average global sea level has risen by 20 centimetres since the beginning of the 20th century.
During this time, the rate of rise has almost tripled from 1.3 to 3.7 millimetres per year.
Extreme weather phenomena such as increasing tropical storms, droughts and heavy rainfall are exacerbating the situation - including in Fiji.
"The Pacific region is quite literally on the front line of this climate crisis," Baerbock said.
