Climate Change

Nicolas Hulot announced the planned ban on fossil fuel vehicles as part of a renewed commitment to the Paris climate deal.

He said France planned to become carbon neutral by 2050.

Hybrid cars make up about 3.5 percent of the French market, with pure electric vehicles accounting for just 1.2 percent.

It is not yet clear what will happen to existing fossil fuel vehicles still in use in 2040.

Ministers from the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu and Kiribati were joined by envoys from Fiji, Vanuatu and Palau in urging member states of the International Maritime Organisation to try and limit global warming to 1.5 degrees celsius above pre industrial levels.

The Marshall Islands minister for transport Mike Halferty told the London meeting that the shipping industry was one of the world's big emitters.

He made this statement while closing the Climate Action Pacific Partnership event at the Grand Pacific Hotel in Suva on Tuesday.

Mr Bainimarama also thanked Australia and New Zealand for lending a helping hand to Fiji when it was struck by Tropical Cyclone Winston in 2016.

Present at the event was Australia's Minister for International Co-operation and the Pacific, Concetta Fierravanti-Wells. However, the Deputy Prime Minister for New Zealand, Paula Bennett had already left Fiji.

Following this week's Climate Action Pacific Partnership (CAPP) event in Fiji, 12 Pacific states called for action from the world's most powerful nations attending this weekend's G20 summit in Germany.

Describing themselves as being on the front line of climate change, the Pacific states expressed deep concern that the United States government had indicated its intention to withdraw from the Paris Agreement and urged the US to reconsider.

And that would be one of the critical issues that the Pacific would push for through Fiji's presidency of COP23 in Bonn, Germany in November.

The Fiji Times said the agreement was reached by leaders at the end of the two-day Climate Action Pacific Partnership conference in Suva yesterday.

The draft action document that would shape the global action at COP23 was not released at the close of the conference on Tuesday as it needed to be sent back to all stakeholders for their feedback in the next 14 days.

250 people served as crew members at different times on a journey that relied heavily on traditional navigation by the stars.

Jenni Ishii from the Polynesian Voyaging Society, says it is important to look after the earth's resources and to not take things for granted.

She said that a physical challenge was navigating changing and extreme weather patterns.

"President Trump believes the climate is changing and he believes pollutants are part of the equation," Haley said Saturday, answering a central question in the wake of his decision to withdraw the country from the Paris climate accord.

Trump "knows that it's changing and that the US has to be responsible for it and that's what we're going to do," she continued, adding that withdrawing from the Paris agreement won't change the country's commitment to curbing climate change.

Next week, the United Nations Oceans' Conference is being held in New York, co-hosted by Fiji and Sweden, with a specific focus on Sustainable Development Goal 14 - namely to conserve and sustainably manage the use of the oceans, seas and marine resources.

Hugh Govan is an advisor with the Locally Managed Marine Area network and had worked with Pacific coastal communities for many years.

He said these communities had lived in harmony with the ocean for thousands of years and they need to be listened to.

The dialogue which is being held at the Warwick Le Lagon Hotel on Wednesday (May 31st) will include participants from both the private sector and civil society organisations.
 
In April 2017, 14 Forum member countries - Australia, Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu - concluded negotiations on the PACER Plus legal text and market access.
 
The signing ceremony of the PACER Plus is due to take place on 14 June 2017 in Tonga.

"Thank you. I won't forget what you said," Trump told Pope Francis, before leaving the Pope's private study after a half-hour private meeting.

Neither Trump nor the Pope revealed what their conversation entailed, but readouts from the White House and the Vatican highlighted terrorism, climate change and peace as agenda items covered.