Pacific leaders call for urgent global action to reverse climate change

Pacific Islands Forum Leaders have called for urgent climate action from their global counterparts, warning rising sea levels will lead to lose of homes, ways of life, wellbeing and livelihoods of islands communities.

Following a high-level political dialogue with the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres in Suva, the leaders issued a statement saying climate change is the ‘single biggest threat to our Blue Pacific region.”

Forum Chair and Nauru President, Baron Waqa read the statement on behalf of the leaders.

The Pacific leaders said all countries must take decisive and transformative action to reduce global emissions and ensure at scale mitigation and adaptation support for those countries that need it.

Global leaders and parties at all levels have also been challenged to take swift and ambitious actions to limit global warming to below 1.5 degrees Celsius.

“As one Blue Pacific, we are – and will continue to – take decisive action”

“We enacted to Boe Declaration to put climate change at the forefront of our collective security action. We have driven global advocacy on climate change and set ambitious Nationally Determined Contributions. We have taken a world-leading integrated approach to tackle climate change and disaster risks through our Framework for Resilient Development in the Pacific.”

Pacific leaders have also called on their global counterparts to seize the opportunity of the UNSG’s Climate Action Summit in New York in September to make the changes needed to reverse climate change.

The leaders met with Guterres in Suva Wednesday.

Guterres will also visit Tuvalu and Vanuatu where he will be able to see firsthand the effects of climate change on local communities.

The UN Secretary General is on his first visit to the Pacific since his appointment in 2017.    

 

Photo Fijian Foreign Affairs Ministry