the pacific islands are facing an existential crisis. extreme weather patterns and rising sea levels are already forcing people to relocate and threatening to create a generation of climate refugees. what's happening here is a bellwether of the planet's future as the world met for the cop 26 in glasgow. i traveled to the pacific islands to meet women on the front lines who are leading the fight against the climate crisis from elders relocating their villages. they told us to go, go. you just worry about your life. to a younger generation leading

with practical approaches. so mangroves are the real eco heroes and the eco gems. from the first female leader in the pacific islands. building up islands is a possibility that is going to take a lot of money that we don't have. to the only current serving female prime minister. there's very low emissions from the pacific and yet. we are most impacted. who carries the expectations of a generation of young women looking for representation. fiame naomi mata'afa became samoa's first female prime minister in 2021, the pacific islands region has the lowest female representation in politics in the world. this year, she'll be attending the cop 26 remotely. climate change is an existential threat to countries like samoa. i don't think it changes, you know, whether i'm the minister of the environment or the prime minister because it's essentially threatening, you know, the life of the planet.

if we recall that cop in paris, that's where there was a special call for leaders to come to, to the cop, you know, it was quite an effort to make sure that the leadership was there. and that has also been the continued call to all the following cops, up to the latest. and in glasgow, because we are on the frontline in the pacific region, it appears more distant perhaps than in other places. but i think it's been said of the pacific that this is really the measure of, you know, where climate change is at. we have to adapt, we have to go down that path, the alternative is unthinkable. as one of the largest islands in the pacific, fiji has played a leading role for its smaller neighbors in many climate related

projects, including home relocation. lity comes from the village of tukuraki that was hit by back—to—back cyclones. it led to her entire village being relocated and rebuilt further up in the highlands. whilst the new village is finished, they told me that many of the villagers still return to the caves that offered them shelter from previous storms. this is the cave. the bigger cyclone comej or the house will be full, which we worry about. worry about your life ? you don't know about all living all your life. - just come here and live. you know, when we 20, - 30 people still have one night

or other nights, you i don't worry about this. only the thing we worried about the hurricane - would be finished. so you feel safer in the cave, in the cave than you do in the village. yeah. this is the house left. this my son. oh, yes, it's open. one part of the house - are taking away, this side. yes. so bad.

all the clothes closet - when the hurricane come here, everybodyjust got left - here because of the water come through the house. i can't do anything - because we are afraid only the main thing to do. they told us to go, go. left all the things. all of you, don't worry about your house, - just worry about your life. it took several years and almost $1 million to move 100 people from all tukuraki just a few miles down the road. and it was an emotional move for people as well. people tie their identity to their land in the pacific islands, but relocation is only going to become more common with more climate induced disasters. can we go back to our home islands with nothing? and for my country, the answer to that is no. it's hard to understate the urgency of the crisis in places like the marshall islands,

the current projected rise in sea levels threatens 40% of building structures in its capital. kathy kitchener is a poet and the daughter of the former president, hilda heine, and she'll be attending the cop 26, as part of the island's delegation this year. in 2014, she captured a global audience at the un. when she read her poem written for her baby daughter. because we won't let you down. now seven years old, her daughter payneham is still facing the same threats that her mum and grandmother are fighting. i am transitioning from this poetry creative side to exactly what you focus on now, which is the kind of more practical solution.

even a poet is now moving into public policy. so if somebody like what it is this poet doing here? hello, senator heine, how are you? in terms of the marshall islands right now and climate change, do you think adaptation is possible? the government is working on the adaptation plan and looking at building up islands is a possibility. i mean, it's going to take a lot of money that we don't have, but that might be the only options we have at this at this point. are you in the marshall islands having conversations about migration, about climate refugees, about actually moving people right now? as 2a islands with communities, and so if we were to build up islands, which island can we build up? because we cannot afford

to build up all the islands? and if we were to relocate people, where do we know which islands you relocate people to? especially we have a culture where certain lands belong to certain families. so these are really hard questions. i personally would like to see my granddaughter continue to live in the marshall islands and have the same opportunities to learn our cultural protocols, that she can learn a unique language and culture on the same streets. and i don't think that's an unreasonable expectation to have for our people. a large part of the negotiations, cop 26, will be on how to mitigate global warming to 1.5 degrees. but in samoa and the pacific,

there's an equal urgency in securing money to adapt to living with the already devastating effects of climate change. i don't think, you know, there was a consciousness and people weren't talking about climate change when i was a young child. but you did begin to see it in terms of the impact that it had. you know, because this is beachfront and we saw that encroachment and we saw the people moving. perhaps we didn't give it the name climate change, but we saw the impact. you know, it's very sad that for us in the pacific, there's very low emissions from the pacific. and yet we are most impacted. and of course, because we are island states and samoa's in a more fortunate situation

that we are volcanic. so we have high ground. but the the echo islands, you know, there is significant impact of the sea rise, even to the extent where the sovereignty of nations, because their land is literally going under the water. she is launching her country's own climate policy as part of samoa's efforts to meet the paris agreement. a key part of it will be on accessing climate funds. this is the amount of money worked out at cop 26 that the big carbon emitters contribute to help pay for the climate damage suffered by smaller emitters such as samoa. as we are meeting here, the world community is meeting in glasgow, scotland, for the cop 26. and one of the things that they hope to achieve in glasgow is the rule book, which is essentially how

we will go about addressing the climate change challenge and the commitments that countries will make. this is the indication of our commitment to climate change, and i hope that they will not only be words written on a page, but that we will carry out the intent of the words therein. we do not want that dreaded death sentence, and we've come here today to see try harder, try harder. to say try harder, try harder. in glasgow, cathy has been navigating the negotiations as part of the fight to secure the billions needed for the marshall islands to adopt for its future survival. so we need funding right now for adaptation. we need that funding

to be accessible. we need to be...and we need it to be scaled up. so we need a large amount of money. we have studies thatjust came out that gave us preliminary costs for adaptation for for basically ensuring that our islands are safe in the present and those costs are in the several billions. and so the financing that we need is a scale in which we can't meet, you know, and we didn't cause any of it. so we shouldn't have to pay a single cent for it. it's now my pleasure - to introduce tina stagey, the climate envoy ofi the marshall islands. we would love to hear your thoughts on what you would like to see - from the outcomes of cop 26. we have advocated for a balance between mitigation and adaptation finance. our belief is that finance is critical to rights and to success. here in glasgow, we're really on the front of the very front lines with no higher ground to retreat to. and so we understand, as do all of our brothers and sisters in the pacific and in islands around the world.

the stakes of this of this fight. the stakes of this. ..of this fight. so, the uk. prepared this session so that the pacific could talk directly with the president of cop 26. i know this is particularly important for the pacific. i hope we will see progress on all of these issues. prime minister, i finally want to say to you that my team and i are straining everything you do to ensure that we are able to say with credibility that we have kept 1.5 within reach.

can i also thank you and the uk delegation for providing the opportunity for the pacific, including many of us who were not able to travel to glasgow. we are still experiencing disadvantages of size and a much reduced voice and cannot help but feel continually being marginalized. a five year time frame is the only outcome aligned with the ambition mechanism of the paris agreement. remember, we are negotiating for the survival of our islands. as negotiations continue, many activists in the pacific are taking actions into their own hands. in fiji, anne marie is known locally as the pacific's greta. when i think of the climate crisis, i'm panicking my family and i are really panicking on... you know, when i look at my three—year—old sister, eunice, i question what will be her future

look like if you're not if faith and i don't do something now, raising awareness, sounding the emergency alarm and a question like, is our actions really worth it today? are there enough women voices that you look around in the pacific islands that are speaking up about climate change? the prime minister of samoa gives young girls my age and older women, you know, their chance to be leaders. and it gives us that, you know, that platform that speaks for us to be in decision making platforms to raise our concerns and to, you know, inspire the upcoming generations as a teen climate activist and as a girl, a young lady, i also get criticized and, you know, discriminated by men because they want to listen from boys and men. the climate crisis hits anyone. it doesn't hit a specific gender.

it hits everyone. you know, women. we are underrepresented in every decision making policies or platforms. so, yes, it really affects women and girls. one of the projects anne—marie has started with friends is a mangrove planting group. they've been responsible for planting over 10,000 mangroves. a mangrove is a shrub that grows in salty water terrain. and it's special because it has these meshed up roots, which mean that it acts as a buffer to the sea. they also help suck up over six billion tons of carbon from the atmosphere annually. so mangroves are the real eco heroes and the eco champs. this is all the mangroves that we planted back in 2018. and it starts from this seedling and then it will eventually end

up as a mangrove forest. are mangrove planting like a real solution to climate change or are they more of a plaster? there's a lot of solutions towards the climate crisis. and because here in fiji we, you know, we can't leave our classrooms to go for for a march or strike for some reasons. so this is our way of striking for the government to, you know, relook at their plans and to move on from abstract solutions to tangible oriented solutions, which we need is concrete action. you know, it gives me hope that, you know, we continue to plant, we continue to walk the talk. and, you know, that's really important. and if one thing that i've learned in my three years of activism is that you cannot allow anyone to walk your talk. climate change disproportionately

affects women, especially those from indigenous communities. i wanted to ask how much this affects her approach as the only female leader in the pacific region. when you look at politics, it's representative government. and, you know, i do encourage women who may not necessarily be thinking about a political career, but that, you know, they continue and especially demonstrate leadership, you know, in whichever area or sector that they are active in. and perhaps somewhere down the line, you know, they might see that the political option is is something that they could step into. when you live in a country where the women's minister is a man and you don't see the representation, it becomes a disconnect of what you can see. and that's the case in samoa as well. the women's minister is a man. yeah, well, i don't necessarily

have a problem with men being ministers, you know, for women, because we've had a few. in fact, i think i've been the only woman ministerfor women, you know, as long as they are able to, you know, recognize, you know, the policy needs of gender issues, then i think that's the important thing. and, you know, given that there's so many more men in our parliaments and governments, it's so important, you know, to get the message through to the male leadership as well so that they can become champions of gender equality. if you could look on balance and think what are the positive outcomes and the sort of negative outcomes of events like c0 p26? i don't know whether it's just the nature of how things are with human beings

that when you're pushed, you take your extreme position, then how you navigate to, you know, bring those extremes, you know, to come to a middle ground. you know, with covid, we've seen such a strong collaboration. that's a very clear example and demonstration of what we can do when, you know, when people feel when they're pushed to act. so we can do it. you know, the world can move, it can collaborate, it can respond very quickly. thank you very much for that. the success of cop26 won't be known for the next few years, but if the world continues to warm, failure will be obvious. hearing no objections. it is so decided.

plenty of cloud streaming across the uk at the moment. further rain to come into the evening but some very mild and getting pulled up from the south, courtesy of this area of low pressure so actually, our above for this time of year through the evening and overnight. quite a wet pitch of england and wales into the evening, with skies clearing and isolated showers for scotland and northern ireland. temperatures holding up above freezing. generally close to the north of the uk around 7 degrees. overnight lows in the south of 11 or 12, and that is because we are pulling this warm air from a long way south. we pull it almost right the way across the uk, almost right the way across the uk, a bit like a warm blanket, through the course of sunday. we do this as the course of sunday. we do this as the weather front springs up from the weather front springs up from the south. the rain for north wales

and through the afternoon for northern england and northern ireland. temperatures to the south of the rain up to 15 degrees in a couple of spots. eight few brighter spells in the east. sunday night into monday, could be very windy to the north—west of the uk has this is the north—west of the uk has this is the centre of this area of low pressure pushing through. gales for the north and west aisles. we will see the low pulling away through monday, staying breezy and some frequent showers, some wintry of the high ground. cooler air sinking to northern ireland and bringing temperatures back down to average around here. the mild air to the south. some rain for england and wales on monday. wet and windy to the far north of the uk but from wednesday onwards, it is all about this area of high pressure building

from the south and as it does so, it will lock up anything colder. through the week ahead, our focus is very much on things being pretty mild with no sign of ice. the high builds and the weather becomes petite settled but it could be quite grey and gloomy.

this is bbc news. the headlines at six: u nless unless the government puts further restrictions in place, the uk faces a substantial wave of omicron infections in esk month that might overwhelm the nhs, that's the new stark warning from scientists. another 633 omicron cases have been recorded the last 24—hour is. the uk's biggest dailyjump in those infections so far. at least 70 people have been killed as a series of devastating tornadoes strike the central united states focusing on kentucky. this has been the most devastating tornado event in our state's history. and for those that have seen it, what it's done here in graves county and elsewhere, it is indescribable.

the only thing i can say to you all at this time what