The corals reefs of Australia and Papua New Guinea cover 19% of the world’s total reef area and contain levels of biological diversity approaching the ‘hot spots’ of the Philippines and Indonesia; Human pressures on these reefs are lower than in other parts of the world (particularly SE Asia).
This report synthesizes the emerging evidence of climate impacts at different temperature thresholds for Pacific islands. All evidence points to vast differences in impacts in a 1.5˚C world, compared to the +3˚C world to which our current policies and climate change pledges are leading us. For Pacific islands and marine and coastal ecosystems in the region, these differences cannot be overstated; even a 0.5˚C difference (between 1.5˚C and 2˚C) may mean that critical tipping points are crossed.