The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2014 (IPCC) report confirms its 1990 research that a 30-50cm sea level rise projected by 2050 will threaten low lying islands, and that a 1m rise by 2100 ‘would render some island countries uninhabitable’. This article addresses the challenges to disaster risk reduction education, how Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) can respond to these challenges, and share initiatives to address disaster education and ESD in the South Pacific.