A climate change expert says small island states are essentially at the mercy of larger countries in the fight against climate change.
Pacific leaders made a commitment at last week's Pacific Islands Forum summit to urgently cut green house gas emissions and become leaders in the fight to combat climate change.
Many of the island nations promise to be using at least 50 percent renewable energy by 2020, and some want to join Tokelau and aim for 100 percent.
The director of Victoria University's post-graduate programme in environmental studies, Dr Ralph Chapman, says climate change is a collective action problem, but larger nations aren't doing enough.
"All small countries are essentially asking, and imploring, the big countries like China and the US to get on with it, because they are the ones that really matter at the end of the day. It's not to say that what New Zealand does and the Pacific Island states do is not important. It is important, but the big countries will make the biggest difference. They've really got to come to the party and at the moment they're upping their game, but they're still not doing enough."
Dr Ralph Chapman says the next five years are crucial because the climate change problem is mounting rapidly.
