Climate Change Resilience
5 December, 2015, Paris, France, COP21 - Action Day at COP 21 in Paris, France has thrust the environmental leadership of the Pacific islands at the forefront of a Pacific Press Conference featuring the Heads of State from the Cook Islands, Palau and Tuvalu.
Attending the 21st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC COP21), the Pacific Leaders highlighted the actions undertaken by their island nations to address climate change.
Palau has created a reserve that will ban commercial fishing in 500,000 square kilometres of their Ocean, banning commercial fishing that will create an effective carbon sink that will allow marine diversity to recover and for fish stocks to rebound, providing spillover benefits for our oceans and for our world.
"For the Pacific islands, the biggest impact of climate change is on our livelihoods, our culture, our way of life and our economies. It is in here that our oceans are pivotal to these effects – sea level rise, ocean acidification, coral bleaching, natural disasters – we should focus on those impacts with the ocean," said H.E President Tommy Remengesau Jnr of Palau.
"We need to help ourselves by doing what we can in our own backyard with good management and a sustainable plan for our ocean - a lot of things that we are doing in Palau making our actions successful."
The Cook Islands has also followed suit in declaring a Marine Park as well as ambitious commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through achieving 50% renewable energy by 2015 and 100% renewable energy by 2020.
"I am pleased to say that we have achieved this, as of February this year, 50% renewable energy across the Cook Islands," said Hon. Henry Puna, Prime Minister of the Cook Islands.
"Now that is leadership, although we are victims to the effects of climate change, we are showing the rest of the polluting world that we are doing something to improve our situation not just for us but for the planet. We are not just environment victims, we are environment leaders."
Today is also a crucial day for the UN Climate negotiations as the 'draft Paris Outcome' was presented to the Conference of the Parties under the French Presidency for over 190 Parties to negotiate until completion.
The Pacific Press Conference heard the 'asks' from the island leaders, loud and clear. One strong 'ask' is for an international mechanism to address Loss and Damage in the Paris Agreement.
"The world is dragging its feet, we must continue to press on we must have Loss and Damage included in the legal agreement that comes out of Paris," said Prime Minister Enele Sopoaga of Tuvalu.
"We cannot have declaratory reference to Loss and Damage allowing modalities to be worked out later, no this is not on."
"Below 1.5 degrees Celsius must be the target of our efforts here, anything less ambitious to 2 Degrees is catastrophic and will spell out the end and disappearance of my island, Tuvalu."
The decisions made here will have a personal impact on the Pacific islands, and as the Prime Minister of the Cook Islands has stressed that this issue is not an academic issue for island communities, it is a matter of life and death.
"It is disturbing that here, the discussion on climate change seems to be an academic one, discussions imply that it can be rationalised with solutions but the discussions are not based on real life experiences," said Prime Minister Puna.
"This is not an academic issue for the Pacific island countries, this is real life - this is a matter of life and death for us."
While the 21st Conference of the Parties ends on 11 December, the President of Palau would like to ensure that there is follow up and implementation of the final agreement.
"Whatever positive steps are taken forward, there has to be a very effective and periodic checking mechanism to make sure these are being implemented," said President Remengesau Jnr.
"It's not just about putting words on paper with no follow up or review or assessment as to whether they are really meaningful. It's about so much more than that. We need the agreement to be implemented for our survival."
The Pacific islands press conference took place at the UNFCCC COP21 on Saturday, 5 December. COP21 is hosted in Paris, France from 30 November to 11 December, 2015. - #4PacIslands
Attending the 21st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC COP21), the Pacific Leaders highlighted the actions undertaken by their island nations to address climate change.
"For the Pacific islands, the biggest impact of climate change is on our livelihoods, our culture, our way of life and our economies. It is in here that our oceans are pivotal to these effects – sea level rise, ocean acidification, coral bleaching, natural disasters – we should focus on those impacts with the ocean," said H.E President Tommy Remengesau Jnr of Palau.
"We need to help ourselves by doing what we can in our own backyard with good management and a sustainable plan for our ocean - a lot of things that we are doing in Palau making our actions successful."
The Cook Islands has also followed suit in declaring a Marine Park as well as ambitious commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through achieving 50% renewable energy by 2015 and 100% renewable energy by 2020.
"I am pleased to say that we have achieved this, as of February this year, 50% renewable energy across the Cook Islands," said Hon. Henry Puna, Prime Minister of the Cook Islands.
Today is also a crucial day for the UN Climate negotiations as the 'draft Paris Outcome' was presented to the Conference of the Parties under the French Presidency for over 190 Parties to negotiate until completion.
The Pacific Press Conference heard the 'asks' from the island leaders, loud and clear. One strong 'ask' is for an international mechanism to address Loss and Damage in the Paris Agreement.
"The world is dragging its feet, we must continue to press on we must have Loss and Damage included in the legal agreement that comes out of Paris," said Prime Minister Enele Sopoaga of Tuvalu.
"We cannot have declaratory reference to Loss and Damage allowing modalities to be worked out later, no this is not on."
"Below 1.5 degrees Celsius must be the target of our efforts here, anything less ambitious to 2 Degrees is catastrophic and will spell out the end and disappearance of my island, Tuvalu."
The decisions made here will have a personal impact on the Pacific islands, and as the Prime Minister of the Cook Islands has stressed that this issue is not an academic issue for island communities, it is a matter of life and death.
"It is disturbing that here, the discussion on climate change seems to be an academic one, discussions imply that it can be rationalised with solutions but the discussions are not based on real life experiences," said Prime Minister Puna.
"This is not an academic issue for the Pacific island countries, this is real life - this is a matter of life and death for us."
While the 21st Conference of the Parties ends on 11 December, the President of Palau would like to ensure that there is follow up and implementation of the final agreement.
"Whatever positive steps are taken forward, there has to be a very effective and periodic checking mechanism to make sure these are being implemented," said President Remengesau Jnr.
"It's not just about putting words on paper with no follow up or review or assessment as to whether they are really meaningful. It's about so much more than that. We need the agreement to be implemented for our survival."
The Pacific islands press conference took place at the UNFCCC COP21 on Saturday, 5 December. COP21 is hosted in Paris, France from 30 November to 11 December, 2015. - #4PacIslands