Planet

Leaders gather for Pacific Islands Forum

The Marshall Islands is hosting the forum, and has chosen the theme "Marshalling the Pacific response to the climate challenge".

It is pushing for member countries, and observers like the US and China, to support a pledge to take bold action on climate change. Isolated in the Pacific, its capital sitting less than two metres above sea level, the Marshall Islands is quite literally struggling to keep its head above water.

When Pacific leaders touch down in the capital of Majuro on Tuesday, they'll see first-hand the impact changing weather patterns, rising seas and ocean acidification are having on the islands.

A week ago, Marshall Islands government minister Tony de Brum labelled New Zealand's commitment "so, so meaningless".

Mass population evacuations are decades off, but the Marshallese government isn't content to wait around for that to happen, Minister in Assistance to the President, Tony de Brum, told AAP.

"Relocation is not an option for us," he said. "We did not create this problem. It is the responsibility of the polluters to reverse their polluting ways."

The Marshalls will push ahead with an attempt to get Pacific-wide agreement on the Majuro Declaration for Climate Leadership, which "recognises the complete insufficiency of current efforts to reduce [emissions]", and calls on post-forum dialogue partners - including the US and China - to make specific, bold targets to reduce their emissions.

"The Pacific Rim is home to more than 60 per cent of global greenhouse emissions and rising," Mr de Brum said.

"This is the key battlefield in the war against climate change. We need the wider region to support our call for urgent action."