Pacific representatives and negotiators have condemned the outcome of the COP26 meeting as “watered down” and a “monumental failure” that puts Pacific nations in severe existential danger, with one saying that Australia’s refusal to support funding for loss and damage suffered by Pacific countries was “a deep betrayal” of the region.
Some Pacific leaders expressed qualified optimism about the result of the critical climate summit, such as Fijian Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama, who wrote on Twitter: “The 1.5-degree target leaves Glasgow battered, bruised, but alive.”
However, many other Pacific experts and climate negotiators were disheartened by the result.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“1.5 is barely alive,” said Auimatagi Joe Moeono-Kolio, a Pacific senior political adviser to the Fossil Fuels Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative. “The first draft of an otherwise very unambitious text had one notable bright spot in it — the phase-out of coal. This was further watered down. For a planet in crisis, this represents a monumental failure in recognizing the clear and imminent danger entire countries are now in, including my own.”
“For all the hoopla and greenwashing since yesterday, the fundamental fact remains: We are still headed for a two-degree-plus world,” he said.
For Samoan negotiator Galumalemana Anne Rasmussen, who is the representative of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) to the COP bureau, the Pacific can only do so much.
“The Alliance of Small Island States and Pacific SIDS really pushed hard, everyone engaged, but unfortunately it is always up to the developed and rich to determine the fate and direction of these pledges and outcomes,” Galumalemana said.
A regional oceans and climate expert from Tonga, Taholo Kami, agreed: “I think we may be finding leadership at subnational and national level, private sector and even consumer and community level offer more hope at this time than the lethargic COP process where we are forced to celebrate painful and minimal shifts with text and leave not knowing if this will result in meaningful outcomes.”
In particular, Pacific leaders were disappointed by the softened language on “phasing down” rather than “phasing out” coal, and also the lack of strong commitment for funding to pay for loss and damages suffered by Pacific nations due to the climate crisis.
“COP26 also failed to adequately recognize our present reality — we are facing the impacts of climate change right now,” said Auimatagi, who has worked with Pacific governments under the process of the UN framework convention on climate change.
“Yet despite their historical responsibility for our current plight, developed nations like the US, UK and Australia refused to support a funding facility for loss and damage, which, in Australia’s case, presents a deep betrayal and abdication of its responsibilities to its Pacific neighbors,” he said.
Former Marshall Islands president Hilda Heine, who has been a key figure in climate negotiations in previous years, wrote on Twitter that she was “disappointed EU and US [High Ambition Coalition] members did not rally behind funding facility to support the vulnerable respond to loss and damages caused by industrialised world’s addiction to [fossil fuels] and coal.”
Despite travel restrictions, costs and risk to health, Pacific islands sent negotiations teams to COP26 in the hopes of influencing outcomes and ensuring that Pacific concerns were heard.
Seve Paeniu, the minister for finance of Tuvalu, one of the atoll nations considered most at risk of disappearing due to sea level rise, gave an emotive speech to the summit in which he spoke of the impact of the climate crisis on his country.
“It is not fiction, it is not projected to happen in the future — our land is fast disappearing. Tuvalu is literally sinking. We must take action now,” Paeniu said.
However, even the presence of Pacific negotiators could not influence the outcomes of the Glasgow summit, which as it stands — even if conditional and unconditional nationally determined contributions for the near-term target of 2030 were met — projected that warming might still spell the end for some Pacific atoll nations.
Australia has announced an agreement with the tiny Pacific nation Nauru enabling it to send hundreds of immigrants to the barren island. The deal affects more than 220 immigrants in Australia, including some convicted of serious crimes. Australian Minister of Home Affairs Tony Burke signed the memorandum of understanding on a visit to Nauru, the government said in a statement on Friday. “It contains undertakings for the proper treatment and long-term residence of people who have no legal right to stay in Australia, to be received in Nauru,” it said. “Australia will provide funding to underpin this arrangement and support Nauru’s long-term economic
ANGER: Unrest worsened after a taxi driver was killed by a police vehicle on Thursday, as protesters set alight government buildings across the nation Protests worsened overnight across major cities of Indonesia, far beyond the capital, Jakarta, as demonstrators defied Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s call for calm. The most serious unrest was seen in the eastern city of Makassar, while protests also unfolded in Bandung, Surabaya, Solo and Yogyakarta. By yesterday morning, crowds had dispersed in Jakarta. Troops patrolled the streets with tactical vehicles and helped civilians clear trash, although smoke was still rising in various protest sites. Three people died and five were injured in Makassar when protesters set fire to the regional parliament building during a plenary session on Friday evening, according to
‘NEO-NAZIS’: A minister described the rally as ‘spreading hate’ and ‘dividing our communities,’ adding that it had been organized and promoted by far-right groups Thousands of Australians joined anti-immigration rallies across the country yesterday that the center-left government condemned, saying they sought to spread hate and were linked to neo-Nazis. “March for Australia” rallies against immigration were held in Sydney, and other state capitals and regional centers, according to the group’s Web site. “Mass migration has torn at the bonds that held our communities together,” the Web site said. The group posted on X on Saturday that the rallies aimed to do “what the mainstream politicians never have the courage to do: demand an end to mass immigration.” The group also said it was concerned about culture,
CRACKDOWN: The Indonesian president vowed to clamp down on ‘treason and terrorism,’ while acceding to some protest demands to revoke lawmaker benefits Protests in Indonesia over rising living costs and inequality intensified overnight, prompting Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto to cancel a planned trip to China, while demonstrators reportedly targeted the homes of the finance minister and several lawmakers. Rioters entered Indonesian Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani Indrawati’s residence near Jakarta early yesterday, but were repelled by armed forces personnel, Kompas reported. Items were taken from the homes of lawmaker Ahmad Sahroni and two others, according to Detik.com. The reports of looting could not be independently verified, and the finance ministry has not responded to requests for comment. The protests were sparked by outrage over
RSS