Pacific island nations are seeking to put their climate concerns at the centre of global negotiations as ministers, climate negotiators and senior officials gather in Fiji for preparatory talks ahead of the COP31 climate summit.

The Pre-COP meeting, scheduled in Nadi from October 5 to 8, is intended to build momentum for the United Nations climate conference in Antalya, Türkiye, in November. COP31 will be held from November 9 to 20.

For Pacific countries, however, the meeting is more than a diplomatic step towards the main summit. It is an opportunity to press the world’s major economies on issues that directly affect the region, particularly the 1.5°C warming limit, climate finance and the growing impact of climate change on oceans and coastal communities.

Fiji has outlined four priorities for the Pre-COP discussions: keeping the 1.5°C target within reach, improving access to climate finance, placing oceans more prominently in climate negotiations and strengthening Pacific leadership.

The 1.5°C target is particularly important for small island nations facing rising seas, coastal erosion, extreme weather and growing pressure on communities and infrastructure.

Fiji’s climate officials have said the country wants to maintain the role of climate science in international decision-making and “hold the line” on 1.5°C. The country is also calling for climate finance to reach vulnerable communities more quickly, arguing that lengthy funding procedures can leave communities waiting for resources while climate risks continue to increase.

Access to finance is expected to be one of the key issues carried from the Pacific discussions into COP31. Pacific governments are seeking greater support for adaptation and resilience, including through a proposed Pacific Resilience Facility that would finance climate projects across the region.

The region is also seeking to bring oceans more firmly into the climate agenda. For Pacific island states, climate change is closely connected to the health of marine ecosystems, coastal communities, fisheries and food security.

The preparatory talks will therefore bring together two aspects of the climate debate: the global effort to limit further warming and the immediate need to protect communities already experiencing its effects.

The setting is significant. Leaders and delegates will also spend time in Tuvalu, a low-lying Pacific island nation particularly exposed to sea-level rise. The programme includes visits to adaptation projects, including reclaimed land and solar installations, allowing visiting leaders to see some of the measures being used by island states to respond to climate risks.

But the meeting comes with a diplomatic challenge. Reuters reported that relatively few leaders from outside the Pacific have confirmed their participation. Leaders from Antigua and Barbuda, Cabo Verde, Thailand, the Maldives and Timor-Leste are among those confirmed, while around 30 representatives of countries and institutions are expected at the leaders’ segment.

A placard displaying ‘Save the Earth’.Representational image.Image Credit:Pexels

The limited participation has drawn criticism from some Pacific officials, who argue that the region’s climate concerns deserve greater international attention. At the same time, the meeting is expected to bring thousands of delegates to Fiji, giving Pacific governments a platform to shape discussions before the main negotiations in Türkiye.

For the Pacific, the focus in Nadi will therefore be on translating regional concerns into negotiating priorities for COP31 — from keeping the 1.5°C goal central to improving access to climate finance and strengthening attention to oceans and adaptation.

The outcome of the Fiji discussions will feed into negotiations at COP31, where governments will have to work through the wider questions of climate ambition, finance and implementation.

For island nations on the frontline of climate change, the immediate priority is to ensure that their experience and demands are reflected proportionately in those negotiations.

Europe’s potato harvest is heading into a difficult season after extreme heat and drought cut yields across some of the continent’s biggest potato-growing regions. Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands could lose around 3.1 million tonnes of potatoes compared with their five-year average, according to a new analysis by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU). When Great Britain is included, the estimated weather-related loss rises to more than 3.5 million tonnes.

At current prices, the lost production across the five countries could be worth between €498 million and €818 million. The impact is already visible in the potato market, where processors are paying substantially more for supplies.

Smaller Crop Before the Drought

The weather shock came after European farmers had already reduced potato planting. A glut in 2025 pushed potato prices down, prompting growers to cut the area planted in 2026. The planted area fell by 11% in Germany, 10% in France, 15% in the Netherlands and 17% in Belgium.

Had yields remained at their five-year averages, the smaller planted area alone would have resulted in an estimated 3.6 million-tonne reduction in production. The drought added another layer of losses. ECIU estimates yields are 13% below the five-year average in France, 21% lower in Belgium, 10% lower in Germany and 7% lower in the Netherlands.

For Great Britain, where the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board stopped publishing harvest and yield estimates in 2021, the analysis uses an estimate from World Potato Markets. It puts yields around 11% below the 2021–25 average, based on conditions similar to the 2018 drought.

Tom Lancaster, land, food and farming analyst at ECIU, said the effects of the summer’s heat and drought were becoming increasingly visible in industry yield estimates. “As one of Europe’s thirstiest crops, it was inevitable that the potato harvest would be hit hard,” he said.

Heat Shrinking the Potatoes

The problem is not only the amount harvested. Heat and water shortages are also affecting potato size. Belgium, the world’s largest exporter of frozen fries, has reported particularly severe problems with Fontane, its main frying variety.

By the end of August, Fontane was yielding around 32 tonnes per hectare, 30% below the previous year. Only about half of the crop was above the 50 mm size preferred by processors. For the processing industry, that distinction matters. A potato crop can survive a dry season while still producing fewer tubers that meet the size requirements for products such as chips and frozen fries.

Recent rainfall may have improved conditions in some areas, but industry estimates suggest it came too late to reverse much of the damage.

Potato Prices are Rising

The tighter supply is showing up in processing markets. Belgian free-market potatoes have risen from zero in April to €200 or more a tonne. German processing potatoes have reached about €240 a tonne, compared with a season low of €15 in June.

In Britain, processors are paying more than £300 a tonne, up from £180 in February. These are processing-market prices rather than direct measures of what consumers will pay. But they show the pressure developing further up the supply chain as processors compete for potatoes that meet their requirements.

Farmers Caught Between Two Bad Years

For potato farmers, the weather shock has come after a difficult market year. Jean-Paul Dallene, a potato farmer in Pas-de-Calais, said he had surplus potatoes last year and was forced to sell them at a loss. This year, drought has reduced his yield by 12 tonnes per hectare. He estimates the resulting loss of income at around €4,300 per hectare, from lower yields and contract prices.

Dallene has already changed his farming practices, including adopting no-till methods to reduce the impact of water shortages. But the severity of this year’s drought and heat exceeded what he expected.

His experience highlights the economic difficulty of adapting to a more volatile climate. Farmers can change cultivation practices, but they still face weather they cannot control and markets that can swing sharply between oversupply and shortage.

Water Management Crisis

Potatoes require substantial water during tuber development. Higher temperatures can increase the crop’s water demand at the same time that drought reduces the water available.

That makes water management increasingly important. Cedric Porter, editor of World Potato Markets, said farmers would need to prepare for both extremes. “Investment in water management, whether it is conserving water when there is too much or irrigating during dry summers, will be essential to the continued success of the crop,” he said.

That means adaptation cannot depend on irrigation alone. Storing water during wetter periods, improving soil moisture retention and making more efficient use of available water could become increasingly important for potato production.

Climate Problem With Food Price Effect

The potato losses are part of a wider pattern of climate stress across Europe. World Weather Attribution found that temperatures during this summer’s European heatwave would have been virtually impossible” 50 years ago. Its assessment of the drought also found that human-caused warming had increased the likelihood and severity of the conditions.

For agriculture, the significance lies in the combination of hazards. Heat increases water demand. Drought reduces water availability. Heavy rainfall at other times can damage soils and crops or make fields difficult to work. These shifts make it harder for farmers to rely on historical growing conditions when deciding what and how much to plant.

The Biological Hangover

The immediate concern is supply. But the longer-term issue is predictability. Europe went from a potato glut and low prices in 2025 to reduced planting in 2026, followed by heat and drought that further cut yields. The result could be more than 3.5 million tonnes of weather-related production losses across five major markets.

For consumers, that pressure can eventually feed into the price of chips and other potato products. For farmers, the bigger challenge is managing a crop when both sides of the equation are becoming more uncertain: the weather that determines yields and the market that determines whether those yields are profitable.

Porter notes that Europe has experienced four droughts since 2018, alongside periods of heavy rainfall during winter and spring. The potato may be an everyday food, but its increasingly unpredictable journey from field to processor is another measure of how climate change is reshaping Europe’s food system.

Switzerland’s iconic Matterhorn has lost almost all of its snow cover after an exceptionally hot and dry summer, offering a stark visual sign of the rapid changes unfolding across the Alps.

The 4,478-metre Matterhorn, one of Switzerland’s most recognisable peaks, was photographed in late September with large areas of bare rock where snow would normally be visible. Experts say the lack of snow at such high elevations is highly unusual for this time of year.

The Matterhorn’s appearance comes as Switzerland records another year of severe glacier melt. According to the Swiss Glacier Monitoring Network (GLAMOS) and the Swiss Academy of Sciences, Swiss glaciers lost more than 5 per cent of their ice volume in 2026, making it the second-largest annual percentage loss on record.

The scale of the loss is particularly significant because Switzerland’s glaciers have already shrunk dramatically. Nearly 20 per cent of the country’s glacier volume has disappeared in just five years, according to the latest monitoring data. Some smaller glaciers have disappeared completely.

Record heat and little winter snow

Scientists say the severe melt was driven by a combination of unusually low snowfall during the winter of 2025–26 and repeated heatwaves between May and September.

The winter was among Switzerland’s 10 least snowy since measurements began. During the summer, the freezing level remained above 4,000 metres for 76 days, more than twice the average and a Swiss record. By September, snow had disappeared even at elevations of around 3,500 metres.

Snow plays an important role in protecting glaciers. A layer of fresh snow reflects sunlight and shields the darker ice underneath from melting. It also provides the material needed to replenish glaciers over time. With less snow accumulating during winter, glaciers are left increasingly exposed to summer heat.

The consequences have been substantial. The average thickness of individual Swiss glaciers declined by between 2.5 and 4 metres this year, while some glacier tongues lost as much as 10 metres of ice. The Aletsch, Rhône, Allalin and Clariden glaciers recorded their greatest melt on record in 2026.

More than a changing landscape

The disappearance of snow and ice is not only transforming the appearance of the Alps. Between July and September, Swiss glaciers released around 2.2 trillion litres of water as they melted more than four times the annual drinking-water consumption of Swiss households. For now, this meltwater can help ease summer water shortages, but scientists warn that this benefit will diminish as the glaciers continue to shrink.

The Alps are also an important source of water for major European rivers, including the Rhine, Rhône, Po and Danube. Switzerland also relies heavily on hydropower, making changes in glacier and snowmelt relevant beyond the mountains themselves.

The snow-free Matterhorn therefore represents more than an unusual photograph. It is one visible sign of a much larger transformation in the Alpine environment that scientists say is being accelerated by rising temperatures and changing snowfall patterns.