Pacific Islands affected by climate change include the Cook Islands, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Palau and Tuvalu. The Torres Strait Islands at the northern tip of Queensland face similar threats.
Sister Geraldine said these low-lying islands acknowledge that they need to address population and unemployment issues, better manage their environmental resources, improve food security and protect their fish resources from poaching.
"What they want us to realise is that greenhouse gas emissions from polluting countries like Australia and New Zealand are exacerbating these problems and creating new ones.
"They are experiencing increasingly severe storm surges and higher king tides resulting in coastal erosion and receding shorelines. Longer droughts and more frequent inundation of salt water is damaging soil and leading to the death of important food sources such as bread fruit, taro and coconut. Fresh water supplies are also threatened. As with Australia's Great Barrier Reef, warmer ocean surface temperatures threaten to bleach coral reefs and thus damage coastal fishing supplies. As the climate changes some islands will see an increase in diseases like dengue fever and malaria."
Sister Geraldine said greenhouse gas emissions needed to be drastically cut back and the islands needed more substantial assistance than is already being provided to adapt to the impacts of climate change.
"I see that it is a moral imperative that we as Religious take a strong stand on our responsibility to our neighbours in the Pacific who are some of the most vulnerable in the face of the dangerous affects of climate change.
"Since many congregations have or have had strong connections in the Pacific I believe that we need to stand in solidarity and be a strong voice that urges our politicians, churches and leaders to lead and act with strength and accountability. I have lived and worked in Kiribati for almost five years and am passionate about the consequences of our choices for the present, and for future generations.
"I also hope that this forum will challenge us to a greater participation in the Forum in Canberra on 2 June when Bishop George Browning, former Anglican Archbishop of Canberra-Goulburn presents a paper offering a religious perspective on climate change and the policy responses needed."
KIRIBATI