Climate change advocacy in the Pacific :The role of information and communication technologies

This article explores the phenomenon of the use of ICT for climate change activism in the Pacific. Climate change activism in the Pacificis characterised by the use of ICT tools such as social media. The articledraws on semi-structured interviews and an analysis of social media sites toexamine the use of social media in Pacific climate change campaigns. Whileother campaigns such as relating to West Papua have also been facilitatedby social media, it has been generally NGO, citizen-led and varied in Pacificgovernment support. In contrast, climate change campaigns in the Pacific arefully supported at the NGO, citizen, and state levels. Furthermore, while earlyPacific ICT-based climate change campaigns used iconic images of PacificIslanders leaving their homelands, more recent campaigns have leveragedsocial media to depict Pacific Islanders not as victims but as ‘warriors’. Thisnew imagery aims to empower Pacific Islanders and engender a regionalPacific identity that shows strength and solidarity on the Pacific’s stancetowards climate change