British Western Pacific Territories

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres sent out a global climate "SOS" at a Pacific islands summit on Tuesday, unveiling research that shows the region's seas rising much more swiftly than global averages.

"I am in Tonga to issue a global SOS — Save Our Seas — on rising sea levels. A worldwide catastrophe is putting this Pacific paradise in peril" he said.

Gulf oil states are using their vast wealth to build influence across the far-flung South Pacific, experts have told AFP, tearing a page straight out of China's Belt and Road playbook.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, two of the world's biggest crude oil producers, have been ramping up efforts to shed their reputations as global climate laggards.

Adamstown is the only settlement of Pitcairn Islands and, therefore, it is the capital of the island cluster, holding the record of being the smallest capital of the world.

The settlement is located on the central-north side of the island of Pitcairn, facing the Pacific Ocean and close to the Bounty Bay, the only seaport of the island.