Palau: A Pacific island on the front line of climate change

The full-throated roar of the twin outboard engines decreases to a dull rumble and the bow comes down as our speed across the lagoon drops. With deft aim, the crewman at the stern spikes a shard of Styrofoam with a boat hook and pulls it aboard.  

Swing Aguon guns the engines again and we surge forward. With a jerk of his thumb over his shoulder.

"I hate to see stuff like that in the water. It's not right," he said.

Aguon, 56, has been operating diving and deep-sea fishing charters out of a dock in Koror, the capital of the tiny Pacific nation of Palau, for 25 years and has noticed significant changes in the natural environment over that time.

Sitting some 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) east of the Philippines and nearly 3,200 kilometers south of Japan, Palau may be faring better than many other low-lying states that dot the Pacific, but it is certainly not immune to the impact of climate change and pollution. 

"I grew up here so when I started taking fishing parties out at the start, I knew the best places because I knew the tides, the currents and the winds," he told DW.

"But everything has changed over the years and now the only way to know where the fish are going to be is to come out and see for myself."

Rising sea levels and 'king' tides 

On land, Aguon says friends and neighbors have been affected by rising sea levels and powerful storm surges that can cause damage, particularly when they coincide with "king tides," which occur around twice a year and reach further than the average high tide. 

In addition, the typhoons that have always been a fact of life in this part of the central Pacific are often now more destructive and last longer than in the past.  

In November 2013, Typhoon Haiyan was one of the most powerful tropical storms ever recorded and directly struck the outlying island of Kayangel, where the highest point is just 1 meter above sea level.

Virtually every building was destroyed, with only the concrete state office and one house left standing.

None of the 68 residents were killed, although the storm went on to kill an estimated 6,300 people when it subsequently struck the Philippines. 

"People in low-lying areas — which is a lot of Palau — are seeing the land around them eroded away and patches where they grow taro and other crops are being inundated with salt water and killed," Aguon said.

"The water comes up and fills the sewer systems and that affects the sea life and the health of local people," he added.

The situation in Palau is being replicated across the Pacific, with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issuing a climate SOS during a visit in late August to Tonga for a summit of the Pacific Islands Forum.  

"Rising seas are a crisis entirely of humanity's making," Guterres told reporters accompanying him.

"A crisis that will soon swell to an almost unimaginable scale, with no lifeboat to take us back to safety. A worldwide catastrophe is putting this Pacific paradise in peril," he continued. "The ocean is overflowing."  

Tourism also affected

A 2023 report by the World Meteorological Organization /WMO) points out that coastal flooding in Guam has soared from twice a year in 1980 to 22 times a year today, from five times a year to 43 incidents every year in the Cook Islands and an even more alarming zero cases to 102 times a year in American Samoa. 

The president of Palau, Surangel S. Whipps Jr, is acutely aware of the challenges that his nation faces.  

"Palau is in the forefront of this challenge and we are living it," he told DW. 

"Temperatures are rising and we are experiencing more frequent droughts," he said.

"But then we have high tides that inundate homes and farm plots in low-lying areas, affecting food crops like taro with salt water. Today; we also get storms far bigger than in the past. We are right to be concerned," he added.

The crisis is even more complicated, he said, as the nation relies heavily on income from the tourism sector.  

"We are seeing coral bleaching in some areas and there are fewer jellyfish in the lake that is one of our most popular attractions," Whipps said. 

Keeping up hope

Part of the task of finding solutions to the island nation's climate-related challenges falls to Adelle Isechal, the marine spatial planning coordinator for Palau's Bureau of Fisheries.  

"Climate change is complicated and the challenges are all interrelated in Palau and across all the islands of the Pacific," she told DW.

"Administrations are struggling to get a grip on the complexities of our oceans and human development, so we have to break down the traditional silos and find ways to work together," she said.

Isechal pointed out that inundation is a rising problem in low-lying areas while freshwater wells are becoming contaminated with salt water.

Outlying atolls that rely on rainwater are becoming "extremely vulnerable" during times of drought, she said.   

Advanced planning is critical, she added, with efforts being made to relocate key infrastructure — including the president's offices and Koror's main hospital — to higher ground, while schools are being designed to double as typhoon shelters.

Yet change is slow and the challenges continue to worsen. 

"When I was younger, I was optimistic that solutions could be found," she said.

"But now I would say I am in transition. I cannot be pessimistic because that would mean that I have given up, so I will say I am being realistic and pragmatic. There is much work to be done."

Edited by Ole Tangen Jr