Climate Change

New law and climate change toolkit unveiled at COP23

The Law and Climate Change Toolkit is aimed at government policy makers responsible for developing laws that help implement the Paris Agreement.

Australia to dramatically miss Paris Agreement pledge

The UNEP's Emissions Gap 2017'report shows Australia is projected to miss its 2015 Paris Agreement pledge by more than a third.

Australia has said it will cut its 2005 emissions by 26 to 28 percent by 2030.

The report released last night showed the country is projected to emit 592-million-tonnes of CO2-equivalent by 2030 compared with its maximum target of 440-million-tonnes.

France stops its Green Fund

The decision will affect dozens of projects in France's overseas territories.

The overseas minister Annick Giradin has told the National Assembly that the next budget has no provision to feed the fund which was meant to mitigate against climate change.

Ms Girardin said her ministry cannot be the only one taking care of the effects of climate change, suggesting that other ministries and agencies share the responsibility.

The cut affects dozens of projects, including some in French Polynesia worth almost $US30 million.

Large team from Fiji heads off to COP23

Fiji's prime minister Frank Bainimarama is presiding over the 11 day long talks, known as COP 23, which starts next week.

The Fijian government said it was ensuring Fiji's "Bula" spirit is stamped on the occasion by providing cultural shows, a Fijian drua or sailing canoe in the main foyer and talanoa-style negotations.

Fiji, along with most Pacific island countries, wants to see a one-point-five-degree limit on global temperature rise above pre industrial levels.

 

Aust to face heat over new coal mine at Fiji climate meeting

Fiji is co-hosting the UN conference on climate change in Germany and is holding a series of preliminary meetings this week in Nadi.

Most Pacific countries have long backed limiting temperature rise to 1.5 degrees celsius abover pre-industrial levels, while New Zealand and Australia have committed to two-degrees in line with most other developed nations.

At the meeting, Australia is set to face criticism over the planned Adani coal mine in Queensland and PICAN's Genevieve Jiva said it should not go ahead.

Vanuatu workshop targets climate change, NCD and population

Pacific Islands Farmers Organisation (PIFON) coordinator Kyle Stice said the three-day event would focus on key issues being faced by Pacific farmers, including further exploring a more practical approach to research and major challenges affecting productivity.

Fiji Times reports the event will focus on various themes including 'Pacific Women in Agriculture', which aims to inspire more female farmers and to explore more innovative ways of empowering women in the agricultural sector.

Pacific campaign wants to exclude NZ and Australia from climate talks

Have Your Sei, led by global advocacy group 350.org, is encouraging people from the Pacific region to lead climate change action by signing a Pacific Climate Warriors Declaration to be presented at the United Nations Climate Change Conference later this year.

The declaration wants to kick big polluters out of climate change talks and do what is needed to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celcius. 

Project co-ordinator Joseph-Zane Sikulu says most of the big countries in climate change conversations are the big contributors to the problem itself.

Bainimarama calls for new emissions target at the UN

In his address Frank Bainimarama urged world leaders to strive for more than just the two degrees’ target set in Paris in 2015.

In November, Mr Bainimarama will take up the presidency COP23 UN climate change conference in Germany.

He told leaders at the General Assembly they should commit to limiting global warming to no more than 1.5 degrees celsius above pre-industrial levels.

"It may be tempting for political leaders to show that they are protecting some national industry or near term economic goal," he said.

Fij praised for taking on COP23 presidency

Germany is hosting the UN climate change meeting this November in Bonn.

At a side event this week at the UN General Assembly in New York, Mr Flasbarth linked the possibilities that can be derived when two different nations work together to build awareness on climate change.

At the same event, the Fiji prime minister Frank Bainimarama reiterated the importance of working closely with Germany.

Tuvalu PM calls for urgency on Paris Agreement

Enele Sopoaga was speaking at a Small Island Developing States event in New York where he and other leaders have gathered for the United Nations General Assembly.

Describing climate change as a security issue, he said there was a need to ensure that implementation of the Paris Agreement was verifiable.

The Agreement, which aims to limit global temperature increase below 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, was designed to protect communities most vulnerable to climate change impacts.