Climate Change

SPREP'S climate change adaptation advisor said training being held this week in Fiji aimed to improve planning and decision making to boost resilience.

Filomena Nelson said skills such as cost benefit analysis were being taught so that limited resources can be spent wisely and with a long term view in mind.

"Adaptation has to be done as part of development planning as well.

Mr Tong is visiting New Zealand to promote a film called Anote's Ark which portrays the frightening climate change reality that his people face.

He said even if the most ambitious targets for reducing global carbon emissions are met Kiribati and other islands like Tuvalu and Tokelau could still be swamped by the sea.

This was the question posed during the recent meeting of the Federation of Catholic Bishops’ Conferences of Oceania (Australia, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands, New Zealand, CEPAC – the rest of the Pacific).

An urgent ethical challenge facing the worldwide human family today concerns economic development dependent upon fossil fuel based energy, especially coal.

Mr Salwai made the comment as he thanked the European Union's Ambassador to Vanuatu for funding the country's biggest solar power farm that has over 2000 solar panels.

Without naming any particular country, the prime minister said it was those superpowers who refused to endorse the Paris climate agreement.

He said he had reminded the United Nations three times of the urgent need for Pacific Islands to be compensated for their land loss due to sea level rise.

Mr Lini, who is himself from North Pentecost, was present when the official caused the blunder in the chief's traditional meeting house, or Nakamal, at the end of last year.

He did not say what the official had done wrong but asked for the chiefs' forgiveness and said he was sorry for what happened.

He offered two custom red mats and the chiefs accepted them.

A spokesman for the chiefs said his action reflected the high position Mr Lini holds in Pentecost custom as a paramount chief as well as at a political level.

The Daily Post says the five year project will address key climate change vulnerabilities and support climate change resilience development with a focus on infrastructure, tourism, fisheries, agriculture and health.

Vanuatu is vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and one of the world's most at-risk places for natural disasters like cyclones, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes.

The Green Climate Fund is a fund established within the framework of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The one day talks are aimed at leading business towards renewables and away from a carbon economy.

With more than a touch of showbiz panache, and among the shaking of hands and platitudes, the commitments started coming through.

The World Bank announced it would stop funding oil and gas exploration and extraction by 2019.

This drew a perfect smile from Sir Richard Branson, but there was more to come.

Two years after the Paris agreement France's president has called together the world's financial and political leaders to come up with action to meet its goals.

Pacific leaders have long called for more financial commitment and innovation to avoid catastrophe.

Emmanuel Macron's main focus for the One Planet Summit is to determine how the financial sector can better support climate action.

The changes necessary will not pay for themselves and innovation is needed.

The five countries are the Cook Islands, the Marshall Islands, Samoa, Tonga, and Vanuatu.

The company, which is owned by the Pacific Island countries, was set up after states saw a need for a mechanism to protect their people from increasing climate and seismic risks.

It provides a regional catastrophe insurance platform offering cover that can be paid out within 10 days of a triggered event, so governments have access to immediate liquidity for disaster response.

Photo: 350 Pacific Damage caused by tropical cyclone Amos 

Pacific Community Director General Dr. Colin Tukuitonga says climate change is beyond economic survival and it is now a moral issue world leaders must take a stand on.

He says Pope Francis reassured Pacific leaders of his support when they met him in Rome before the COP 23 talks in Bonn.

"Mostly people now are saying that clearly climate change is not a scientific discussion anymore it's actually a moral ethical one."