Cyclone-prone islanders are pinning their hopes for survival on the "two big brothers" of the Pacific region taking more responsibility for their carbon pollution.
Climate change is expected to dominate this week's Pacific Island Forum leaders summit in Port Moresby, ahead of a major United Nations conference in Paris later in the year.
An Oxfam report, released on Monday, to coincide with the summit has called on Australia and New Zealand not to sell out their tiny Pacific neighbours.
"They are presently regarded as two of the worst-performing governments when it comes to climate change and are a drag on international efforts," the report says.
Pacific leaders want the world to work on restricting the global warming temperature rise to 1.5 degrees, fearing a two-degree target will risk the survival of many tiny island nations.
The Abbott government has announced a carbon emissions reduction target of 26-28 per cent on 2005 levels by 2030 while NZ's target is a cut of 30 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030.
Both have been criticised for lacking ambition.
Australia and NZ's "woefully inadequate" emissions targets were "threatening the very survival of some Pacific nations", the report says.
The World Bank estimates that eight Pacific island nations will be in the top 20 countries set to sustain the highest average yearly losses to national income from disasters.
The report also details how island nations are starting to feel the effects of climate change.
Cyclone Pam flattened much of Vanuatu in March affecting 188,000 people or 70 per cent of the population.
"With most people relying on subsistence farming they are strongly affected by shifting rainfall patterns, degradation of marine ecosystems through ocean warming and acidification," the report said.
The acute vulnerability of Pacific countries to climate change was all the more unjust because they had contributed so little to the problem.
The report noted Australia had pledged $200 million to a Green Climate Fund and had paid $70 million so far.
The fund distributes cash to help developing countries adapt to climate change and NZ has only contributed $2.7 million and should be more generous, Oxfam said.
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