Climate Change

Leaders of Cook Island, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru Palau and Tuvalu meet at the Laguna Hotel in Port Moresby ahead of the Pacific Island Leaders’ Summit this week.

The Niue government was not present as their team  is yet to arrive in Port Moresby.

In a press conference they issued a special declaration on climate change that demanded the world limit the global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius and that countries uphold the principle of "polluter pays".

The issue will likely dominate this week’s Pacific Islands Forum leaders’ summit in Port Moresby, ahead of the United Nations climate change conference in Paris later in the year.

Pacific leaders want the world to work on restricting the global warming temperature rise to 1.5C, fearing a 2C target will risk the survival of many tiny islands.

Natural disaster recovery will be fresh on their minds. The summit starts on Monday, six months after Cyclone Pam, which flattened much of Vanuatu and caused heavy flooding on Tuvalu, Kiribati and the Marshall Islands.

Ban made the appeal in separate meetings with the President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Keqiang, Vice Premier Liu Yandong, and Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing, where he attended commemorative events in the Chinese capital marking the 70th anniversary of the Second World War.

She has been attending the Pacific Islands Development Forum in Fiji where Pacific island countries have been coming up with a position to take to crucial UN climate change talks in Paris in November.

The statement includes a demand on limiting global temperature to 1 point 5 degrees over pre-industrial levels.

Mrs Robinson says the statement will have an impact on industrialised nations.

Meeting in Fiji at the Pacific Islands Development Forum (PIDF) in early September, heads of government were militant in their readiness to confront the world’s polluting nations in Paris in December at the UN Climate Change conference.

A panel of Pacific Island leaders stressed this during a talanoa session on Climate Change and Migration Thursday.

“The question is, it’s not always about what we take to Paris as important, what is possibly more important what we will come away from Paris with. We really want to come away from Paris with some clear guarantees that something is going to be done that will ensure our future generations will have a chance of survival,” said  Kiribati President Anote Tong. 

The Commonwealth Secretary General Kamlesh Sharma made the comments while delivering his keynote address at the Pacific Islands Development Forum in Suva.

“Initiatives such as the Commonwealth Climate Finance to be launched by the Malta Commonwealth heads of Government meeting this November ,will allow Countries and regions to bolster their practical ability to access funds for adaptation and mitigation needs,” said Commonwealth Secretary General, Kamlesh Sharma.

He says he had hoped Australia would have done better in its target of reducing emissions by between 26 and 28 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030.

"I have a simple message today for the Australian Prime Minister: Mr Abbott, it is time to put the welfare and survival of your Pacific Island neighbours before the expansion of your existing coal industry and your continuing reliance on this dirtiest of energy sources. The other day, the President of Kiribati, His Excellency Anote Tong, described Australia's loyalty to coalmines as selfish and I couldn't agree more."

The summit’s chief guest, the Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Thailand, H.E. General Tanasak Patimapragorn, is arriving in Suva tonight and will join the UN Special Envoy on Climate Change and former President of Ireland and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson along with other heads of state, governments and special envoys from across the globe.

As well as on the opportunities and solutions seen in actions by individuals and governments alike across vulnerable developing countries worldwide.

“We want to provide young journalists in developing countries a unique opportunity to contribute to the global debate on climate change in the run-up to COP21, while building their capacity and providing recognition for excellence” noted Neil Buhne, UNDP Geneva Director.