This project, funded by the Research Council of Norway, aims to build new and urgent interdisciplinary analysis and policy recommendations concerning of one of the greatest challenges of our time: how Pacific islanders and their states prepare for, and react to, what may be the demise of their sovereign land and sea territories. In the Pacific Islands, whose people contribute the least to global warming, but are facing its most severe effects, sea-level rise and erosion of land combine to create a challenging situation not documented historically: entire nations risk partial or total loss of their land and sea territories.

In 2009, then United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon submitted to the General Assembly a report on the security implications of climate change, concluding that for small island nations, a likely outcome is ‘[s]tatelessness … the loss of statehood because of the disappearance of territory’. Concurrently, UN representatives of 11 Pacific ‘small island developing states’ (the PSIDS group) presented a scenario where ‘… international disputes over land, maritime borders, EEZs and other territorial rights are likely’, noting that ‘[l]long-established rules of international law may prove insufficient’ since ‘[o]nce … islands are lost to sea level rise, the people will never be able to return to their homelands’. As sovereign states, Pacific nations control vast ocean areas as Exclusive Economic Zones extending 200 nautical miles from land, which even allows atoll nations with little land to claim identity in the world’s political arenas as ‘Big Ocean States’, to build economies from tuna fisheries, and to take on major roles in global negotiations about climate change and ocean governance. However, maritime sovereignty in the Pacific is threatened by sea-level rise of up to three times the world average. Reviews indicate that global legal institutions are ill prepared to tackle a process through which the ocean of a state may be transformed into sea beyond legal ownership – mare nullius – as terrestrial baselines of existing 200-mile zones may disappear under rising seas. This project proceeds from four decades of research in Pacific studies by the project director and his group, builds interdisciplinary collaboration with climate science and legal studies, and draws on leading international research partners in the natural and social sciences, law and humanities. At the core of the implementation of this large-scale research and policy project is the long-standing partnership in Pacific Studies, ocean science and climate change research between the University of Bergen and the University of the South Pacific. Research will combine climate science models and scenarios of sea level rise and coastal transformation, legal analysis of maritime law and sovereignty (including BBNJ and High Seas) , and fieldwork-based analysis from anthropology, political science and history. Research and communication will foreground the experiences of Pacific islanders at home and of the innovative global diplomacy of Oceania’s Big Ocean States in the fight against the impending loss of land and sea. The project’s research partners include specialists across all involved fields of study at universities in Europe, the Pacific, Australia, New Zealand and North America.

Through the cooperation and resource sharing between the University of Bergen and the University of the South Pacific, and through close dialogues at UN level, the project will offer advisory capacities to PSIDS missions, to regional Pacific organizations, and to the IPCC. A key Norway-Pacific partnership is the Norway-Pacific Joint Chair of Oceans and Climate Change (#OceanAction18613), which involves two-way capacity building and technology transfer in climate-ocean modelling. As an enduring online resource, the project has established and operates a one-stop open database for relevant national, regional and UN documents as they accumulate. Based on the experience by the PI Professor Hviding and his research group from unconventional but high-impact programmes of dissemination and outreach, it is envisaged that Ocean States can utilize the timeliness and urgency of the research to produce a drama performance with artists of the University of the South Pacific (USP), as well as a documentary film for wide distribution. Agreements has been made for annual consultation of the research-and-dissemination agenda with the PSIDS Ambassadors at the United Nations, to provide for immediate policy implementation of research findings. Similar dialogues will be implemented in Suva through the core partnership with the University of the South Pacific. In terms of direct capacity-building, the aim of the Ocean States project is to build deeper knowledge and handling capacity in the global system – including the UN and UNCLOS – of and for the strategies and policies developed by the Big Ocean States of the Pacific in their fight for their sovereign territories as low-lying land is threatened by rising seas.

The Ocean States project and its multiple SIDS Partnerships are directed by Professor Edvard Hviding of the University of Bergen, who is a leading specialist on culture, society, diplomacy and climate change challenges in Oceania. Professor Hviding has more than 30 years of research experience in the Pacific, including 4 years in Solomon Islands, and is also an Honorary Professor of Pacific Studies at the University of the South Pacific. The University of the South Pacific (USP) is the project’s main partner institution, with major participation by PaCE-SD (Professor and Director Elisabeth Holland, Dr. Tammy Tabe) and other USP centres and schools: Oceania Centre for Arts, Culture and Pacific Studies (under the directorship of Dr. Cresantia Frances Koya-Vaka'uta), School of Marine Studies (Dr. Joeli Veitayaki), and the USP School of Law (Dr. Margareta Wewerinke). Partnerships are established with the PSIDS group of Pacific ambassadors at the United Nations, Norway’s Permanent Mission to the UN, and Oceania’s own regional organisations in ocean governance. Outside the USP leading Pacific academics and policy specialists including Dr. Transform Aqorau, Dr. Tarcisius Kabutaulaka and Mr. Fe’iloakitau Kaho Tevi are integral to the project group, and a strong agenda of direct policy engagement at global and regional levels will be developed. The Ocean States project commenced its operations on 1 June 2018, and will over its 6-year operation arrange major dialogue events in Bergen, Suva, Honolulu and New York, as well regular consultations with the PSIDS UN representatives in New York. An interactive website, a one-stop online information database, open-access dissemination portals and channels for project-wide internal communication ware all live as of 2019. At its home institution the University of Bergen, the Ocean States project forms part of the university’s strategic initiative for the 2030 Agenda, and it is integral to the university’s Ocean Sustainability Bergen Centre, which maintains a strong relationship with UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC).

University of Bergen (Norway); The University of the South Pacific (Fiji, Cook Islands, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu); University of Hawai'i at Manoa (United States); Australian National University; Pratt Institute; PSIDS Group of Ambassadors at the United Nations; Pacific Ocean Alliance