(Image L - R: Maina Taliafua, H.E Anote Tong, Hon Enele Sopoaga, Kathy Jetnil-Kejinir, Father Bhagwan, Joseph Moeono-Kolio)
9 December 2019, Madrid, Spain - A panel of distinguished Pacific Islanders who have been instrumental in leading the Pacific’s fight against climate change had a message they wished to convey to the rest of the world – “do the neighbourly thing.”
In the context of the Pacific, being a neighbour comes with responsibilities. You are culturally and traditionally obligated to look after your neighbour and vice versa, to perceive their needs and to ensure that they are protected against anything that threatens their livelihoods and survival.
Father James Bhagwan, General Secretary of the Pacific Council of Churches, acknowledged that in the Pacific, 90% of the population are Christians, which means there is not only a cultural understanding of a neighbour, but there is a religious understanding also.
“In the Fijian language, the word for neighbour is kainoqu, which means “of my own”. You are part of who I am. I think this is something that relates across the region in terms of how we see each other, more and more so in the last few years the understanding of our Pacific leaders’ idea the concept around Pacific regionalism and being part of the Pacific family.”
Fr. Bhagwan likened a good neighbour to the Good Samaritan in the Bible, who helped a man who was beaten and left to die on the side of the road, while those who were his own, who knew him and lived near him simply chose to walk on by without offering him any assistance.
Ms Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner, a poet, performance artist and educator, said she expects solidarity from neighbours, “The coming together to support each other, to support each other’s campaigns, without having tunnel vision on just what you’re doing and what you need.”
The former Prime Minister of Tuvalu, Enele Sopoaga spoke as someone who has been involved in climate change negotiations for years, as far back as Rio in 1992, and stated that in the face of the current climate crisis, our “neighbours” are no longer just the countries within the Pacific region, but all the countries of the world.
“We are all in the same canoe - industrialised and developed countries are all our neighbours, and we must come together to address the cause of climate crisis. It’s as simple as that,” he said.
“H.E. Anote Tong and I have been in the negotiations space for many years, negotiating and calling out for more neighbourly actions when it comes to climate change. We have to ask, have we crossed that red line; have we crossed the threshold?”
“For our Pacific islands, we certainly have crossed the threshold, with the IPCC report stating that islands such as Tuvalu and Kiribati will be underwater in the next 30 years if we do not undertake urgent climate action,” he added.
Kiribati Special Envoy on Climate Change and former president of Kiribati, Anote Tong, who also spoke on the panel, said, “One of the things we hear about capitalism, about the modern society as we know it and that we are taught to learn, is that Greed is Great. In our communities and our part of the world, that is not the kind of nature that we know. In the Pacific, we are trying to ensure that nobody is left behind. This is the challenge we are facing today with climate change.”
He also commented on the self-serving nature of conferences such as the COPs, with countries only coming to ask what can be done for them, what they can get out of this, and never about how we can collectively deal with the issue of climate change.
“We need to stop thinking “me” and start thinking “we”.
The “Not without my neighbour” High Level event was held on Monday, 9 December 2019 at the Moana Blue Pacific Pavilion, a feature of the Twenty Fifth Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
To keep updated with the events happening at the Moana Blue Pacific Pavilion please visit www.pacific-pavilion.com or download the Attendify App, search for Moana Blue Pacific Pavilion, and create your profile to join.
The UNFCCC COP25 is held in Madrid, Spain from 2 – 13 December