For more than 30 years, Pacific island countries have issued the same warning at the annual UN climate change conference: the warming ocean threatens not just food and energy security but global survival itself. And almost every year, our warning has been treated as a regional problem, a challenge confined to remote small islands and thus not warranting more than lip service from international leaders.
I wish I could say we were wrong. Instead, the climate devastation unfolding before our eyes, supercharged by an El Niño cycle and record-breaking ocean heat, proves that this crisis does not stop at the shoreline.
Rising sea levels are swallowing fertile farmland, displacing communities and driving up insurance premiums for families. Ocean warming threatens the energy grids and ports that power the world economy and keep global supply chains running. In the Arctic, 60 percent of coastal infrastructure, much of which is used for critical security activities, has become vulnerable to erosion. In 2024, the Mediterranean Sea and Black Sea, major fishing and aquaculture hubs that generate $21.5 billion in direct and indirect revenue per year, experienced marine heat waves with temperatures nearly 5 degrees Celsius above normal, raising concerns about food insecurity.
Ocean warming threatens the energy grids and ports that power the world economy and keep global supply chains running
