Aside from the encroaching rising sea level, Fiji is just as vulnerable to the extreme weather events accompanying climate change.

Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama says that as the world experiences the worse El Niño phenomena on record, Fiji and the Western Pacific is experiencing severe drought.

Bainimarama told world leaders at the COP21 meeting that the drought is destroying our agriculture base and the livelihoods of Fijians in the western side of Fiji.

‘’The focus concentration of warming on our oceans not only destroys our coral ecosystem of which many of our people depend for food and tourism but have become the generators of intense cyclones that have destroyed the lives and essential infrastructure’’.

Bainimarama added that cyclones are now forming in the Pacific outside the traditional cyclone season, raising the outlook of a year round threat.

He told world leaders that these are the signs of small island nations bearing the brunt of climate change brought about by the industrial revolution.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister is returning home early from the COP21 meeting following the death of his older brother – Ratu Meli Bainimarama.