Climate Change

The assurance was conveyed during a one hour dialogue led by Foreign Affairs Minister, Julie Bishop, on Wednesday morning with ministers from 12 of the 16 Forum Island Countries.

Australia is a key member of the Umbrella Group comprised of Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Kazakstan, Norway, Russian Federation, Ukraine and the United States.

Vanuatu is a member of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), Least Developed Countries (LDC), PSIDs and G77.

Minister Bennett refused to give New Zealand’s support to an explicit goal in the Paris climate agreement to limit global warming to a 1.5 degree increase, despite growing support from allies including Australia

That's why activists, backed by some big names such as actor, bodybuilder and former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, are taking a gentle approach at this year's United Nations climate summit in Paris to tackling the world's greenhouse gas-intensive love affair with meat, ranging from offering lookalike plant burgers to suggesting a gradual weaning off animal protein.

At this level, the risks that climate change poses to the very survival of Vanuatu are minimised, said Minister Ludvaune.

“Vanuatu is still recovering from nation-wide suffering and devastation inflicted by severe category 5 Cyclone Pam, now exacerbated by the drought induced by the strongest ever El Nino event. Human lives, the lives of my people have been lost.”

The representatives met ahead of the second week of United Nations climate change negotiations

“Last week, the international community moved another step closer to adopting an effective and durable climate change agreement, but, make no mistake, our work is far from complete. “We are acutely aware the survival of our members is hanging in the balance in Paris and that a bad deal may be worse than no deal at all.”

To ensure success, we must accelerate the pace and ensure the final agreement maintains meaningful outcomes on all of the pillars from the Durban mandate:

Tuvalu Prime Minister Enele Sopoaga called for the small island developing states to band together and fight off “serious attempts” to drive a wedge between them.

The call highlights the tensions emerging between even the most tight-knit collections of countries in Paris after days of lengthy and slow negotiations.

The Prime Minister is upset he wasn't invited to a meeting between some Pacific Island nations, including Kiribati, and United States President Barack Obama last week.

The commissioner, Dame Meg Taylor, who also heads the secretariat of the Pacific Islands Forum, says the world leaders meeting on climate change in Paris must set ambitious targets and limit global warming to below 1.5 degrees celsius.

She says the ocean, climate and weather are all linked with the impacts of climate change on the Pacific already being felt by many.

Prime Minister of Tuvalu Enele Sopoaga said the negotiations are painfully 'slow,' as he went onto accuse the bigger countries of employing delaying tactics.

It’s Minister for Climate Change, Jerome Ludvaune promised indigenous peoples from the Pacific and around the globe present at the Pacific side event at COP21 Thursday that his government will uphold and support the rights of indigenous people in sharing their traditional knowledge to address climate change.

Minister Ludvaune went a step further to reveal that Vanuatu supports Articles 2 & 4 of the proposed Paris Agreement to recognise indigenous peoples in communities and their traditional knowledge.