Climate Change

The submission of Tonga’s Second NDC is well in line with the Paris Agreement’s requirement for Parties to communicate their updated or new NDCs by 2020.

Nationally Determined Contribution or NDC are actions that Parties to the Paris Agreement plan to undertake to address climate change.

A statement said a party’s contributions to address climate change is ‘nationally determined’ according to its national circumstances and priorities.

The workshop brings Tonga’s NDC one step closer to submission to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), meeting Tonga’s obligation as a Party to the Paris Agreement, to submit a new and enhanced or more ambitious NDC by 2020.

The recommendation was outlined in a new policy paper released today by the University of New South Wales' Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law.

The paper urges the government to do more to help neighbouring countries, with several Pacific island nations facing an existential threat from rising sea levels.

Co-author Jane McAdam said it was a roadmap for Australia to deal specifically with the displacement of Pacific Islanders as a result of climate change and natural disasters.

It assesses a 20 percent chance the threshold will be broken in one year before 2024 and a 70 percent chance it will be broken in one or more months in those five years.

Scientists say it shows the tough task of controlling climate change levels.

The 2015 Paris accord had tasked world leaders with certain goals.

It committed them to pursue efforts to try to keep the world from warming by more than 1.5C this century.

An assessment was recently carried by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The IMF said Tonga was one of the most exposed countries to natural disasters, which are forecast to get worse.

The report said damage caused by cyclones Gita and Harold had shown the vulnerability of the low-lying capital, much of which lies below sea level.

The IMF said Tonga's infrastructure and public services were not climate resilient, and most of its population lived in highly exposed areas.

Tonga would need US$671 million to finance its adaptation, it said.

Bots are computer programmes that can masquerade as humans to post or send messages on social media.

Researchers discovered tweets posted by bots created the impression there was a high level of climate change denial.

The paper detailing the finds has not yet been published and was first reported by The Guardian newspaper.

The research team analysed 6.5 million tweets from the period surrounding President Donald Trump's June 2017 announcement that he was removing the United States from the Paris climate accord.

This is something the Government of Tonga believes should be done urgently.

Almost everyone believes activities being carried out on Tonga’s waters, including the tuna industry here, have not raked in the maximum that the Kingdom should be getting in terms of income and earnings.

Locals are of the thinking that overseas companies and operators are taking advantage of the lack of monitoring and policing – making money and taking that away overseas, without any contribution to the local economy.

That amount accounts for half of the development budget for 2019/2020, and most of the funding goes to adverse impacts of climate change.

Prime Minister Pohiva Tu'i'onetoa spoke about the funding for Tonga projects at COP 25, the UN climate talks held in Madrid, attended by 25,000 delegates from over 200 nations.

Mr Tu'i'onetoa informed the high-level plenary meeting about Tonga's vulnerability to climate change, and said it was the second most at-risk country in the world to natural disasters, according to the 2016 World Risk Report.

Elisabeth Holland, who's based at the University of the South Pacific, said the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) Special Report - which she contributed to - painted another dire forecast.

The report found oceans were heating at such a rate their chemistry is being altered which, in turn, is threatening food supplies, fuelling more extreme cyclones, and posing a profound threat to people who lived in low-lying areas.

During Prince Charles' trip next month, he will launch a national ocean policy and a malaria elimination roadmap.

The prince will also learn about sustainable fisheries management in the Pacific.

A statement from the Solomon Islands government said the prince would also meet with Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare and other leaders in Honiara.

Prince Charles will be in Solomon Islands on the 24 and 25 of November, following his visit to New Zealand and Tuvalu.

The prince last visited Tuvalu in 1970.