As the sun sets over Fiji’s tiny Serua Island, its climate-threatened inhabitants soak in one of the reasons they have rejected attempts to relocate their village – the “US$100 million views”.
The island looks like a utopia from the mainland, two steep palm-covered knolls sandwiching its low-lying centre, flanked by coral reefs and rich fishing grounds. But it is on the island itself that the risk from rising seas becomes clearer, with a concrete sea wall providing the only defence against waves that are already swamping homes.
“The stronger the air pressure, the higher the waves. So the waves wash through inside the village,” Serua Island resident Avenai Ranuku said.