The Pacific Islands Development Forum (PIDF) will call on the world's biggest emitters of greenhouse gases to compensate all Pacific Islands that are affected by climate change.
At the PIDF meeting Thursday, the forum agreed that compensation will be a key component in the Suva Declaration which will be adopted today at the conclusion of the meeting.
PIDF Interim Secretary-General Amena Yauvoli said “those who are responsible for emitting the most greenhouse gases should pay” as their actions contradicted what they had agreed upon in the United Nations Framework on Climate Change (UNFCC).
“Our contribution of greenhouse gases emissions is less than one per cent and while we are contributing less, we are facing the full brunt of climate change. So we agreed to compensation in terms of migration and compensation in terms of loss and damage as a result of climate change.”
When asked how compensation will be paid out Yauvoli said, “We need to define the methodology and the criteria that need to be followed.”
Given the need to address the seriousness of climate change, the UNFCC has set up a Green Climate Fund worth $US100billion ($F217b).
“Its purpose is to fund those nations affected by climate change, the question now is how we can access those funds,” said Yauvoli.
Meanwhile, in opening Thursday's meeting Mary Robinson, the United Nations Secretary-General's Special Envoy on Climate Change, said there had been discussion with relation to compensation
“The French Government is stewarding an informal process where ministers from across the world seek to find ways to resolve key issues that are emerging from the negotiations. As part of this process, there is an informal ministerial meeting next Sunday and Monday in Paris to look specifically at climate finance, means of implementation, adaptation and loss-and-damage which are all of vital importance to people in the Pacific and other SIDS,” she said.