01
The Pacific share almost disappears
The 17 Pacific places shown here produced 17.3 million tonnes of territorial CO₂ in 2023. The world produced 38.1 billion tonnes. Put them on the same scale and the Pacific share is a sliver: 0.0454%, or roughly one tonne in every 2,200.
02
One cyclone can shake an entire economy
The scale changes when a cyclone reaches land. Across these four storms, assessments placed the economic blow between more than one fifth and nearly two thirds of annual GDP. Pam displaced 65,000 people in Vanuatu. Winston affected 540,400 people in Fiji.
03
Four storms sit inside a much larger web
From 1980 to 2023, 508 recorded storm tracks crossed the South Pacific. Of those, 103 reached Category 3 or above, about one in five. Scroll through the map to see Pam, Winston, Gita and Harold emerge from that wider record.
The wider record
Storm after storm has crossed the South Pacific
These 508 tracks show how widely cyclones have travelled across the region since 1980.
The strongest tracks
About one in five reached Category 3 or above
The strongest 103 tracks weave through the same islands and waters.
Four familiar names
Pam, Winston, Gita and Harold emerge from the web
Each highlighted line leads back to the lives and national economies shown in the cards above.
04
The slower change reaches every place
Cyclones mark individual days. Ocean warming unfolds across decades. The sea surface average for 2014 to 2023 was warmer than the 1993 to 2002 average in every one of the 21 places. French Polynesia records the smallest shift at 0.21°C. Nauru records the largest at 0.49°C. Every row moves in the same direction.
05
The heat reaches the reefs
Coral heat stress builds as unusually warm water lingers. In 2024, all eight stations crossed 4°C weeks, when significant bleaching can occur. Seven also crossed 8°C weeks, when severe bleaching and coral mortality become likely.
06
By 2023, every row ends in a higher sea level band
The early years are filled with neutral bands and a few lower readings. Warmer colours spread across the chart over time. In 2023, all 21 records show a positive anomaly. Twenty sit at +0.1 metre and Vanuatu at +0.2 metre.
07
Do wetter years bring better harvests?
The 450 observations give a messy answer. Wetter years include 124 yield gains and 105 losses. Drier years include 121 gains and 100 losses. The overall correlation is 0.04, so the points settle into a cloud instead of a clear slope.
08
The move to renewable electricity is uneven
Tokelau sits at one end of the chart, with renewables supplying 94.4% of its electricity in 2023. Fiji is the only other place above halfway, at 52.1%. The next highest share is Papua New Guinea at 33.5%, and four places remain below 10%.
The full picture
So where does that leave the Pacific?
The story began with a sliver of world emissions. It moved through storms, warmer seas, stressed reefs, changing sea levels and unpredictable harvests. The final chart shows action already under way, with plenty of distance left to travel.