Fiji, Oct. 2 -- Pacific leaders are gathering in Fiji and Tuvalu for a meeting ahead of the annual global climate summit (COP31) to be held in Turkey (also known as Turkiye) in November.

The goal of the meeting is to amplify a Pacific voice to raise the urgency of keeping global warming as close to 1.5degC as possible.

This comes as a recent United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report confirmed the world is on track to cross 1.5degC within the next five years, but also identified pathways for returning to this temperature threshold as quickly as possible.

This matters for low-lying atoll nations whose very existence depends on it. As the UNEP report highlights, there are no safe futures above 1.5degC since every fraction of a de...