Tuvalu, October 7, 2026: Pacific leaders, climate advocates and representatives of vulnerable communities have issued the Taku Pakasoa Declaration, calling for stronger global action to limit warming to 1.5°C, scale up climate finance and protect the rights, livelihoods and cultures of small island states.
Issued in Tuvalu on October 6, the declaration—Taku Pakasoa, meaning “strength found in unity” in Tuvaluan—warns that rising temperatures, sea-level rise, ocean warming and other climate impacts pose an existential threat to Pacific communities and other Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and Least Developed Countries (LDCs).
The declaration commends Pacific island countries for their leadership in global climate diplomacy and calls on all Paris Agreement parties to accelerate deep, rapid and sustained emissions reductions to limit the magnitude and duration of any temperature overshoot.
It urges countries that have not yet submitted their 2035 Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to do so urgently and calls for climate decisions to be guided by the best available science from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
The declaration also backs a rapid global clean-energy transition, including efforts to triple renewable energy capacity and double the annual rate of energy-efficiency improvements by 2030, while advancing a just, orderly and equitable transition away from fossil fuels.
On climate finance, the signatories call for a major increase in funding for vulnerable countries, particularly for adaptation. They urged reform of the international financial architecture to deliver finance—including grants and concessional funding—at the speed and scale required by SIDS and LDCs.
The declaration welcomed the Pacific Resilience Facility as a mechanism to strengthen regional resilience, disaster preparedness, adaptation and responses to loss and damage, and called for greater contributions to support community-led climate action.
The declaration places the ocean-climate nexus at the centre of global climate action, highlighting growing threats from ocean warming, acidification, sea-level rise and marine biodiversity loss. It calls for stronger ocean science and collective action to protect the ocean’s role as a major carbon sink, climate regulator and source of global food security.
The signatories also reaffirmed the importance of maintaining the statehood, sovereignty and maritime zones of countries affected by sea-level rise, in accordance with international law.
“In the spirit of Taku Pakasoa,” the declaration says, the gathered voices represent “unity, resilience and power” and call on all parties to strengthen global climate action and implementation ahead of COP31 in Antalya, Türkiye, to secure a safer future for generations to come.
