Climate Change

This includes a picture of a wild pig drawn 45,500 years ago on the island of Sulawesi - said to be the world's oldest animal cave painting.

Other cave motifs in the region depicting hunting scenes and supernatural beings have also crumbled faster as temperatures increase.

The findings signal that more needs to be done to preserve the priceless art.

"[These pieces of art are] disappearing before our eyes," study lead Dr Jillian Huntley, from the Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research, said in a statement.

But Robert Downey Jr has ambitions to play another role - that of an investor in technology to combat climate change.

He tells Tech Tent he wants to step out of the make-believe world of his Avengers character and confront the real threat to the planet.

"I'm not a kid any more. And I really want to find things that I think are dynamic and interesting and - tell me if I'm wrong - but isn't this the space to be catching the buzz right now?"

The decision was taken during Friday's virtual leaders' summit to mark the fifth anniversary of the Paris Agreement.

The leaders have endorsed the development of a 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent ahead of next year's COP26 in the UK.

The leaders also renewed their commitment to progress the implementation of the Paris Accord.

The forum acknowledged the need for urgent and immediate actions against the threats and challenges of climate change.

The submission of Tonga’s Second NDC is well in line with the Paris Agreement’s requirement for Parties to communicate their updated or new NDCs by 2020.

Nationally Determined Contribution or NDC are actions that Parties to the Paris Agreement plan to undertake to address climate change.

A statement said a party’s contributions to address climate change is ‘nationally determined’ according to its national circumstances and priorities.

The workshop brings Tonga’s NDC one step closer to submission to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), meeting Tonga’s obligation as a Party to the Paris Agreement, to submit a new and enhanced or more ambitious NDC by 2020.

The recommendation was outlined in a new policy paper released today by the University of New South Wales' Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law.

The paper urges the government to do more to help neighbouring countries, with several Pacific island nations facing an existential threat from rising sea levels.

Co-author Jane McAdam said it was a roadmap for Australia to deal specifically with the displacement of Pacific Islanders as a result of climate change and natural disasters.

It assesses a 20 percent chance the threshold will be broken in one year before 2024 and a 70 percent chance it will be broken in one or more months in those five years.

Scientists say it shows the tough task of controlling climate change levels.

The 2015 Paris accord had tasked world leaders with certain goals.

It committed them to pursue efforts to try to keep the world from warming by more than 1.5C this century.

An assessment was recently carried by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The IMF said Tonga was one of the most exposed countries to natural disasters, which are forecast to get worse.

The report said damage caused by cyclones Gita and Harold had shown the vulnerability of the low-lying capital, much of which lies below sea level.

The IMF said Tonga's infrastructure and public services were not climate resilient, and most of its population lived in highly exposed areas.

Tonga would need US$671 million to finance its adaptation, it said.

Bots are computer programmes that can masquerade as humans to post or send messages on social media.

Researchers discovered tweets posted by bots created the impression there was a high level of climate change denial.

The paper detailing the finds has not yet been published and was first reported by The Guardian newspaper.

The research team analysed 6.5 million tweets from the period surrounding President Donald Trump's June 2017 announcement that he was removing the United States from the Paris climate accord.

This is something the Government of Tonga believes should be done urgently.

Almost everyone believes activities being carried out on Tonga’s waters, including the tuna industry here, have not raked in the maximum that the Kingdom should be getting in terms of income and earnings.

Locals are of the thinking that overseas companies and operators are taking advantage of the lack of monitoring and policing – making money and taking that away overseas, without any contribution to the local economy.