Paper short abstract:

Climate crisis prompts numerous interpretations across Oceania, sometimes expressed through the story of Noah. With more people moving abroad, this parable remains as a reference to climate change, yet continues to adapt to different peoples and their cosmologies.

Paper long abstract:

Anthropogenic climate change has been acknowledged worldwide and acted upon by numerous international and local agencies. Pacific Islands are on the frontline of this climate crisis by experiencing accelerating storm surges and rising sea levels. Considering the heterogeneity of culturalpractices , competing attitudes towards climate change emerged. Specifically, the variety of Christian denominations and local knowledge practices produced numerous comprehensions of climate change. For this reason, the importance of sociocultural factors has been acknowledged in climate reports and policy planning. However, despite such efforts, policy makers encountered instances of climate denial that is exercised through numerous interpretations of Noah’s story. Previous findings pointed to the notions of industrial blame, acknowledgement of rainbow covenant as a rejection of climate change and many others. This study demonstrates that religion provides a vessel for comprehension of environmental change through the lens of one’s cultural reality. The ethnographic study of the Fijian diaspora in the UK of the Methodist denomination has been conducted to examine the intersectionality of local knowledges, climate change, religion and a setting in the Western locality. By centralising the research on the story of Noah, this study investigates how notions of climate justice are expressed in this biblical parable. This will be achieved through comparative approach to the Fijian diaspora and local views on climate change in Fiji. Overall, this study aims to contribute to the existing body of knowledge that highlights local views and subjective experiences of climate crisis to a more inclusive and holistic approach for climate policymaking.