about

“A future in which the survival, prosperity and dignity of the people of the Pacific are ensured and the problems posed by climate change and environmental degradation are solved through sustained global cooperation”

Project Survival Pacific

Pacific Youth in Climate Action

Who are we?

Project Survival Pacific is an independent, regional youth environmental organization based in Fiji that works to safeguard the survival of the Pacific island people from the impacts of climate change and to promote sustainable development within the Pacific.

Our team is made up of vibrant young volunteers, who live and work throughout the Pacific region. We have a wide variety of personal and professional backgrounds, but are united in our belief that the world needs to listen to the voices of those on the climate frontlines.

People in the Pacific islands are feeling the negative impacts of climate change, especially low income communities, indigenous communities and the youth.  Right now growing seasons are changing, fresh water and jobs are becoming more scarce, and our seas are rising.  As climate change gets worse and we experience more natural disasters we exacerbate issues that are already a problem like human rights abuses and a failing economy.

As our climate becomes more unstable, we in the Pacific must lead by example to show how communities can safeguard their future by proactively building climate solutions.

Recognizing that despite being some of the most vulnerable nations and people on earth in the face of climate change, our Pacific people are under-represented at important environmental meetings, passed over by the weight of bureaucracy and swept under the rug of political expediency; and that young people of the Pacific can be the ambassadors of the region on environmental issues, Project Survival Pacific aims to:

  • Educate Pacific islanders about climate change, sustainable development and the environment; and empower them to take action to ensure the long-term survival of their people;
  • Provide accurate, accessible information about climate change, assisting young Pacific islanders and the wider community to understand the problem, its effects, and solutions;
  • Influence domestic and international environmental policy so that it adequately and urgently addresses the needs and interests of Pacific island states and its people;
  • Be a regional collective voice of the Pacific youth in addressing the environmental issues of concern to young people in the Pacific;
  • Benefit the Pacific community by building a generation wide movement to solve climate change by educating, inspiring, empowering and mobilizing young Pacific islanders around the issue; and

  •  Enable the Pacific youth to be influential, motivated and engaged in solutions to climate change and sustainable development goals in the Pacific.

History of Project Survival

The international youth climate movement at the 2008 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) COP14 negotiations in Poznan had a simple, but powerful message to communicate: Survival Is Not Negotiable.

Global youth asked all countries to commit to a global climate treaty that ‘safeguards the survival of all countries and peoples’. This principle, which became known as ‘The Survival Principle’, is also called for by the world’s most climate-vulnerable nations: those in the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) and the Least Developed Countries (LCD’s), who are also the least responsible for causing the problem.

If a nation commits to and acts in accordance with the ‘Survival Principle’, they must do more, faster, to mitigate and adapt to dangerous climate change. The science is now clear that in order to ensure the survival of all nations, and all cultures or peoples, a global climate treaty must aim to stabilize atmospheric concentrations of CO2-e well below 350ppm, and must also ensure that robust funding and support is provided to the first-affected nations, to enable them to adapt to a climate that has already been changed by the first- industrialized nations.

Within three days at Poznan, 90 nations signed on to the Survival principle, together with notable leaders on climate change such as Dr Rajendra Pachauri and Lord Nicholas Stern. If nations who have signed on to the Survival Principle then go on to sign a global climate treaty that does not satisfy the minimum criteria for Survival of the most vulnerable among us, we the youth will hold them to account.

COP14 in Poznan saw more youth involved in the negotiations than ever before. However, it was also clear that great inequities existed in youth representation, just as was the case in the negotiations. Few young people were there to speak on behalf of the most vulnerable nations.

It was this that triggered the birth of Project Survival: the notion that the youth movement had to work towards becoming truly global. An American Project Survival team emerged to support the Caribbean. A European group emerged to support Africa. Project Survival Media emerged to promote a strong, united message internationally…

And in the Pacific, Project Survival Pacific was born with the support from the Australian Youth Climate Coalition.

Contact Information

If you would like more information about Project Survival Pacific, or are keen to assist us in our activities, please contact our Executive Director, Krishneil Narayan at krishneil.narayan@youthclimatecoalition.org.