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Critique surrounding climate finance is mounting against a backdrop of an escalating ecological crisis manifesting unequally across the globe. This paper uses learnings from racial capitalism to unpack the modalities of climate finance, using the Pacific region as an illustrative case. It argues that racial capitalism is enacted through modalities of climate finance, in part, by the erection of walls. One type of wall enacted by climate finance is epistemic: its definitions place it as the inherent object of Northern interventions. Moreover, financial walls are maintained through debt in climate finance, creating borders of deprivation through ongoing practices of indebting already burdened regions. The paper also highlights the way borders can manifest through regulation, in particular, through climate funds delineating arduous benchmarks of already burdened states. These walls contribute to the racialized process of creating 'sacrifice zones': places that have borne the cost of benefits accrued elsewhere, left without in a state of depletion. The paper explores the material futures that are being enacted by these modalities of climate finance through the case of climate migration. Yet these dystopian futures must not be taken for granted, rather, the walls which separate climate affected communities from hopeful futures must be dismantled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alan Ward (1935–2014) delivered his inaugural professorial address at the University of Newcastle, New South Wales, on 23 March 1988. Following his 1987 promotion to Professor, a position he held until his retirement in 1996, the lecture marked a milestone in his career, which to that point had included not only his influential study, A Show of Justice: Racial 'Amalgamation' in Nineteenth Century New Zealand (1974), but also important work on land reform in Papua New Guinea, the New Hebrides/Vanuatu, and New Caledonia. Some 35 years after its delivery and ten years after Ward's death, the Journal of Pacific History now publishes the lecture (as retrieved from his papers and transcribed by his daughter, Ingrid Ward) in its entirety. This introduction highlights key themes from the lecture in the context of Ward's career and subsequent publications that expanded on the issues raised in the speech. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Worldwide, cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer among women, and the World Health Organization (WHO) Western Pacific Region, where the U.S.-affiliated Pacific Islands (USAPI) are located, accounts for one quarter of all estimated cases. Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines are recommended at age 11–12 years to prevent most cervical cancers. HPV vaccines were introduced across USAPI during 2007–2016, predominantly provided through school-located vaccination programs. Retrospective analysis using data from jurisdictional immunization information systems was used to estimate vaccination coverage among adolescent girls as of the last day of each calendar year during 2013–2023. This analysis measured progress toward the WHO 2030 vaccination coverage goal of ≥90% completion of the HPV vaccination series among girls by age 15 years. As of December 2023, initiation of the HPV vaccination series among adolescent girls aged 13–17 years ranged from 58.0% in Palau to 97.2% in the Northern Mariana Islands, and HPV vaccination series completion coverage ranged from 43.4% in Palau to 91.8% in the Northern Mariana Islands. HPV vaccination series completion coverage is >90% in the Northern Mariana Islands and is on track to meet WHO goals by 2030 in American Samoa. Assessment of adolescent vaccination coverage can help immunization programs monitor progress toward regional goals and identify populations and areas with low coverage. Implementing evidence-based strategies to increase vaccine access and coverage would benefit jurisdictions with lagging coverage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]