Abstract
The effects of climate change are being felt globally, but especially by Pacific Island Countries (PICs) that face challenges of rising sea levels, salt-water inundation, and more extreme weather events. Conversation about climate change in this region has turned to adaptation methods, including the idea of climate change-induced migration. The discourse of ‘climate refugees’ has emerged, suggesting potential for large numbers of international migrants as PICs become uninhabitable due to climate change. As a low-lying atoll nation, the Republic of Kiribati has been placed at the forefront of this issue as an example of a state that may become uninhabitable in the future. However, notions of climate migration are complex and contested, raising a number of questions around the dominance of Western knowledge, power and discourses in climate change issues, as well as issues of justice and responsibility that arise from entire nations becoming uninhabitable. This thesis aims to explore the ongoing debate over climate change migration in the Pacific region, focusing on representations of Kiribati, the implications of these representations for the responses of Kiribati and New Zealand organisations to climate change, and what role New Zealand Government and Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs) have in these issues.
This thesis uses a post-structural approach to complete a media discourse analysis of New Zealand and international news articles to uncover the dominant representations of Kiribati in relation to climate change migration and adaptation. Semi-structured interviews were also conducted with New Zealand Government, involved NGOs and New Zealand I-Kiribati to provide a range of in-depth perspectives on issues and approaches to climate change migration and adaptation. The findings show that climate migration from Kiribati remains a complex and contested idea that is developing and surrounded by uncertainty. I argue there is a disconnect between representations of Kiribati in the media analysis in relation to climate migration and adaptation, compared the actual approaches by New Zealand Government and NGOs that are focused on adaptation and development through principles of partnership, with climate migration remaining a background issue that will be addressed in future if necessary. I contend that climate migration represents a more recent iteration of geographic imaginaries, framing Kiribati as ‘other’ and in need of Western assistance for its population to migrate. Contrasting these imaginaries, the approaches being taken by New Zealand in Kiribati show the nuance of these issues and suggest the role of New Zealand (and other industrialised nations) is to support Kiribati in what they request, while taking broader responsibility for emissions through climate action.