The United Nations has confirmed that the Southwest Pacific region experienced unprecedented marine heatwaves in 2024, affecting more than 10% of the world’s ocean surface—a staggering area of around 40 million square kilometers, or five times the size of Australia. This marine heatwave led to exceptional increases in sea surface temperatures, with anomalies averaging 0.48–0.5°C above the 1991–2020 average. The affected areas included the waters surrounding Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, the Philippines, and parts of the South Pacific Islands, leading to large-scale coral bleaching, ecosystem disruptions, and higher sea levels.
The warming oceans have intensified extreme weather, including more powerful cyclones in the Philippines and coastal flooding across Pacific Island nations. The UN also reported alarming glacier loss in Indonesia, where the country’s last tropical glacier lost nearly 50% of its mass in one year and could vanish entirely by 2026. Communities across the region, many of which live less than 500 meters from coastlines, now face heightened threats from rising seas, acidification, and loss of marine life. The report urges immediate global climate action to limit further ocean warming and prevent irreversible damage to ecosystems and coastal livelihoods. More