A Hawaii based scientist says a new climate report is an urgent call for the US Congress to collaborate more with Pacific nations.
Photo: RNZ
A researcher at the East-West Centre, Victoria Keener, says the 3rd US National Climate Assessment highlights concerns such as ocean acidification, rising sea surface temperatures, coral bleaching and the stress on fresh water supplies.
She says the report is a call to Congress for action.
"This is real, this is happening now, it's not happening in the future. These are impacts that we're seeing not just on the US mainland but in the Pacific, on the islands, everywhere. It's happening now and we need to start addressing it. Well we needed to start addressing it a long time ago but we definitely need to start doing something now if we want to combat this effectively."
Dr Victoria Keener.