COP21

The postgraduate students are part of a team of 10 from the USP, which includes both a legal and a science expert.

Each of the eight students have been accredited to six different Pacific island country delegations and are providing support on issues that are important to the Pacific such as climate finance, loss and damage as well as the Enhanced Durban Platform for Action.

Over 150 leaders from across the globe met in Paris, France to demonstrate their support to save the Planet through a new climate change agreement. The form of this is to be finalised by the end of the two weeks of negotiations. The Cook Islands are uniting with the Alliance of Small Island States and are calling for a legally binding agreement that limits global warming to below 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Instead, he's asked the more than 160 world leaders here in Paris for the 21st Session of the Conference of Parties (COP21) of the UN climate change body to choose wisely and agree to an ambitious and legally binding agreement.

Known as Intended Nationally Determined Contribution, INDC for short, these plans outline among things carbon emission reduction targets each country is committed to. Two island nations, Tuvalu and Palau submitted their INDCs the last 48 hours, on the eve of the opening of the final rounds of climate change negotiations in Paris.

Forum Leaders also welcomed France’s commitment to support Pacific Island Countries in the pursuit of a legally binding and ambitious international climate change agreement at 21st Conference of the Parties (COP 21).

"We expect COP 21 to lead to a universal, legally binding, dynamic, durable and ambitious agreement that will establish rules and mechanisms to limit global warming consistent with the ultimate objective of the Convention." reads the Declaration.

Pacific island challenges are made harder with the impacts of climate change. The island region which consists of 30,000 islands with three of the five lowest countries on earth is one of the most vulnerable regions on earth to the impacts of climate change.

Addressing a summit with Pacific leaders in Paris, Hollande said the accord should try to meet the target of less than two degree temperature rise by the end of the century.

The French foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, told the meeting that, "a maximum should be two degrees, 1.5 degrees."

Speaking ahead of a summit involving France and the Pacifc countries, Fritch says while these nations are small, they represent a large area of the world's surface.

Atoll countries have been affected by climate change, but pleas for emission reductions have been unsuccessful.

But on the table will be a controversial proposal put up by New Zealand, which suggests only parts of the deal should be binding.

The aim of the talks is to get all countries to agree to cut their emissions to a level that will keep the warming of the planet to below 2° above the current global average.

The United Nations has estimated that the pledges put in so far would limit warming to 2.7°.

People in the Pacific are being called on to share stories on social media of how they've been impacted by climate change, in a bid to strengthen the Pacific voice leading up to the COP21 conference in Paris.

The Pacific Islands contribute to less than 0.03 percent to the world's total greenhouse gases yet are amongst the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

The Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme says the outcomes of COP21 are crucial to the Pacific region.