Climate Change

Speaking at a public lecture in Fiji, ADB President Takehiko Nakao says the Pacific Islands are already among the most vulnerable in the world to disasters - as cyclone Pam in Vanuatu earlier this year reminded us.

He said natural disaster cost most Pacific island countries over 2% of Gross Domestic Product each year.  

Nakao said expert on International Panel on Climate Change has reported without policy chnage, we can expect a world that is  4 degrees warmer by the end of the century.

The small island nations are seeking a legally binding climate agreement from world leaders at the Paris COP 21 summit in December.

But Greenpeace's executive director, Kumi Naidoo, says the position taken by the Pacific countries is weakened without their most powerful neighbours on board.

The Pacific island nations say they have been forced to consider such nuclear options as buying land abroad to grow food and preparing their people to migrate as the seas slowly claim their homelands.

But as representatives of Pacific island nations met in Jaipur in the western Indian desert state of Rajasthan this week, the message was clear -- world leaders meeting in Paris in December must deliver on expectations of a historic deal to combat global warming.

The New Zealand government has pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 30 percent below the level of 2005 by 2030.

The Australian government has a similar target, with plans to cut carbon emissions by at least 26 percent of 2005 levels by 2030.

When asked about New Zealand and Australia's emissions targets, Henry Puna said it's up to New Zealand and Australia to decide what is good for them.

He says the important thing is that they come together regularly to talk about those difficult issues.

An academic at the University of the South Pacific (USP), Professor Elisabeth Holland, says the time to act is now and lobby for a legally binding commitment to fix global carbon emissions at the Paris COP21

“If Paris doesn’t work, if we don’t find a solution, is if France say diplomacy doesn’t work, if Fiji’s leadership doesn’t work, if the Republic of Marshall Islands leadership doesn’t work, we’re on the red line.”

Leaders and delegates from 14 island nations are in Jaipur for the second Summit of the Forum for India- Pacific Islands Cooperation.

India's Economic Times quotes the country's External Affairs Minister, Sushma Swaraj, saying India stands ready to share its expertise and technology with the island nations to help them adapt to and to mitigate the effects of climate change.

The paper says India will push for greater cooperation with the island countries in sectors like oil and natural gas, mining, IT, healthcare, fishing and marine research.

Ioane Teitiota and Angua Erika and their three New Zealand-born children have lost claims for refugee status due to global warming.

Teitiota has been battling deportation to Kiribati since 2011, when he overstayed his visa.

He argued his family faced indirect persecution from man-made climate change, which has caused rising sea levels, contaminated water, destruction of crops, tidal surges, and extreme weather.

Tuvalu’s Reverend Tafue Lusama is currently on a tour of New Zealand’s main centres in an effort to highlight the urgency of tackling climate change effects in the Pacific.

He is calling for New Zealand – which he refers to as “Tuvalu’s big brother” – to take the lead in climate change action and help to save the sinking country.

“I’ve always regarded New Zealand as Tuvalu’s big brother,” Rev Lusama said in his address at the Love Your Neighbour event earlier this month, which was co-ordinated by Oxfam.

Connie Hedegaard, who now chairs the KR Foundation, a climate focused funding platform, praised the movement to shift finance flows away from climate-polluting sectors.

In an exclusive interview with RTCC, recorded for our new Road to Paris podcast, she revealed it is a priority for the fund over the next 18 months.

“I would very much hope that this could be part of a package around the Paris agreement,” Hedegaard said.

That's how the people of Tuvalu feel.

It's predicted the Island nation, the smallest archipelago in the Pacific, could be underwater in the next 30 to 50 years due to rising sea levels.

Tuvalese leaders spoke of their plight at a breakfast event in Mangere last week as part of a Climate Change Tour hosted by NZ NGOs including Tear Fund and Oxfam. The tour aims to create awareness around the effect climate change is having on our pacific neighbours, and continues in Christchurch and Wellington this week.