Pacific island leaders are to hold a virtual summit on Friday next week to demand urgent worldwide action on climate change ahead of UN-brokered talks on the issue.
Tuvalu Prime Minister Kausea Natano yesterday said that the Pacific Islands Forum — an 18-member regional grouping — had a duty to spur the world into meaningful action.
“With Pacific island nations on the frontline of the climate change crisis, our ongoing global leadership and advocacy is critical,” Natano said.
Photo: AP
Natano, who this year holds the role of Pacific Islands Forum chairman, called the virtual meeting of forum members to articulate the regional leaders’ demands.
The aim is to put pressure on world leaders who are holding a separate virtual meeting the following day to discuss “high-ambition” goals on climate change.
The talks on Saturday next week — cohosted by the UN, Britain and France — coincide with the fifth anniversary of the signing of the Paris Agreement.
The accord committed all nations to cap warming at 2°C above pre-industrial levels and encouraged them to limit the increase to 1.5°C.
Natano said that the Pacific Islands Forum’s summit was a chance for members to provide updates on their progress and signal the Pacific’s desire for “momentum and ambitious action” on climate change.
“There is no doubt that our collective failure to act as a community will impact not just our current generations, but that of our children and all future generations,” he said.
Renato Redentor Constantino, executive director of the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities in Manila, said that the Pacific meeting could be uncomfortable for Australia and New Zealand.
The climate response from the two wealthiest Pacific Islands Forum members had been “hollow and ritualistic,” Constantino said. “Both like to think of themselves as benefactors in the Pacific, but in reality, they act like troglodytes and arsonists.”
Constantino criticized Australia’s ongoing support for coal and said that New Zealand — which this week declared a “climate emergency” — continued to grow its greenhouse gas emissions.
“By shirking from their climate responsibility, both are fanning flames that are consuming the Pacific’s rapidly dwindling lifelines,” he said.
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