Climate Change

The Environment and Climate Change Minister Siaosi Sovaleni said the country would apply to the UN's Green Climate Fund in April for most of that amount.

Mr Sovaleni said communities needed help with coastal protection measures, sedimentation management and capacity building.

He said the Eastern and Western coasts of Tongatapu and the islands of Ha'apai were particularly vulnerable.

“It is no secret that the United States federal administration under President Trump appears to be less enthusiastic about the Paris Agreement,” Mr Bainimarama told the Fijian Parliament.

He said during their meeting with United Nations top climate change administrator, Patricia Espinosa last week in Suva, both agreed that the world cannot afford to drop the ball at this critical stage.

The agreement and work plan will explore a range of different partnership opportunities in the field of marine science.

Ocean conservation under a future of climate change is an overarching theme of the work of SPREP for which key milestones will benefit from this MoU. 

Construction of the Pacific Climate Change Centre begins this year, and this regional hub for inclusive collaboration on adaptation and mitigation priority needs for Pacific islands will be strengthened by the outcomes of the MoU.

The focus of the course run by the global advocacy group, the Women's Environment and Development Programme, or WEDO, is on preparing women to take a greater role in climate change negotiations.

WEDO's Bridget Burns said often women are shut out of the discussions.

She said the training aims to establish a body of Pacific women able to really engage in climate change negotiations in the international arena.

Colin Tukuitonga was speaking as the regional agency marked its year of operations.

The US is a founding member and a significant funder of programmes undertaken by the SPC, which include extensive climate change activities.

But the Trump administration is full of climate change deniers and the president has said it is a hoax perpetrated by China.

Data from Nasa and the UK Met Office shows temperatures were about 0.07 degrees Celsius above the 2015 mark.

Although the Met Office increase was within the margin of error, Nasa says that 2016 was the third year in a row to break the record.

The El Niño weather phenomenon played a role, say scientists, but the main factor was human emissions of CO2.

Mr Trump, who is set to take office on Friday, dismissed climate change as a hoax during his election campaign and vowed to pull the United States out of the Paris climate agreement.

The foreign secretary of the Federated States of Micronesia, which is the current chair of the Pacific Islands Forum, reiterated his country's hopes that Mr Trump changes his view on climate change.

The data are the first of the New Year to confirm many projections that 2016 will exceed 2015 as the warmest since reliable records began in the 19th century, it said in a report.

The Arctic was the region showing the sharpest rise in temperatures, while many other areas of the globe, including parts of Africa and Asia, also suffered unusual heat, it said.

A few parts of South America and Antarctica were cooler than normal.

Ban, who will step down as head of the U.N. after 10 years at the end of this month, described climate change as the single most pressing danger facing the world and called last year’s Paris agreement his “greatest achievement” in office. The agreement, which was reached in December 2015 in Paris, outlines an action plan to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius compared with pre-industrial times.
 

Mr Trump said during his campaign he would pull out of the Paris climate accord although reports indicate he has softened his approach.

In a speech this morning in Suva, Fiji's Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama said without America the battle against climate change is doomed.

He told diplomats, NGOs and government officials Mr Trump must be persuaded to change his mind.

He said if the US does withdraw from the agreement there is no hope for the world to comprehensively tackle the issue.