SPC Geoscience Division

TVNZ One News, Saturday July 13, 2013, Barbara Dreaver - Pacific leaders are working to be more prepared for disasters, after a year of wild weather events.

In the past year there has been flooding in Fiji, a cyclone in Samoa, an earthquake and tsunami in the Solomon Islands and months of drought in the Marshall Islands - and research shows it is not going to get better.

The World Meteorological Organisation has released a report showing the world has experienced unprecedented high impact climate extremes in the past decade.

"We know from the scientists that the intensity of these cyclones are going to increase over time," said David Sheppard from the Pacific Regional Environment Programme.

Not content to sit back and let it happen, Pacific leaders have vowed to combine resources for climate change and disaster management.

"Neither disasters or climate change is a thing for the future, it's an issue for today and tomorrow - the fact we learn so slowly," said the UN's Margereta Wahlstrom.