Climate Tops Agenda At Forum Meeting
Being of existential concern, time is running out for communities facing the wrath of climate change and the involvement of Australia in addressing the security threat is vital.
With just two days remaining until the commencement of the much anticipated 51st Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) held in Suva, Pacific leaders continue to echo a strong message of cutting emissions by at least half by 2030.
A new Climate Council report was released just days from the start of the most important annual political meeting for the Pacific region.
The report is titled ‘A fight for survival: Tackling the climate crisis is key to security in the Blue Pacific’.
Climate Council of Australia Senior Researcher and lead author of the report, Dr Wesley Morgan, said the report outlined the need to have climate change at the front, and centre and the role Australia played if it wanted to position itself as a key partner for Pacific Island countries.
“The reality is for the security of the Pacific and the new climate council report provides an update on the science of climate impacts,” Mr Morgan said.
“Pacific Island countries are already facing rising temperatures, more intense cyclones, sea-level rise, coastal flooding and changing rainfall patterns in coral bleaching.”
The Climate Council is Australia’s leading community-funded climate change communications organisation. It provides authoritative, expert and evidence based advice on climate change to journalists, policymakers, and the wider Australian community.
An independent group known as the Pacific Elders’ Voice (PEV) have emphasised that Pacific countries will need to see more urgent actions including accelerated efforts to move beyond coal and gas.
This is to match the security threat currently faced and that new finance should also be made available for unavoidable loss and damage.
Mr Morgan also reiterated a statement made by Fiji’s Minister for Defence, Inia Seruiratu, at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore where, he said: “Machine guns and fighter jets are not our primary security concern.
Waves are crashing at our doorstep; winds are battering our homes and we are being assaulted by this energy from many angles.”
AUSTRALIA’S ROLE IN CLIMATE ACTION
To earn the trust of the rest of the region, Australia will need to show Pacific countries that it is serious about climate action.
Former Prime Minister of Tuvalu and former PIF Chair, Enele Sopoaga, highlighted that the urgency of climate change action was not only environmental or economic development.
“It’s the security and survival reality for the Pacific countries as a matter of life and death because climate change is a weapon of mass destruction affecting Pacific Island countries,” Mr Sopoaga said.
Mr Morgan also added: “In a warming world, climate policy is foreign policy. Under the previous federal government, Australia’s failure to act on climate change undermined our national security – nowhere is that more evident than the Pacific.”
Based on Australia’s high emissions, economic strength, and vast untapped opportunities for renewable energy, it should aim to reduce its emissions to 75 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030.
ABOUT THE PACIFIC ISLANDS
FORUM
The annual meeting brings together the Pacific and it is the Pacific’s premier political forum from July 11-14. The meeting will be hosted by the Fijian Government, led by the Forum Chair and Prime Minister, Voreqe Bainimarama.
The Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) is organised around an annual meeting between island leaders and their counterparts from Australia and New Zealand.
Taivesi Nawaqa of Drauniivi village in Ra points to the tree roots that are now exposed due to the riverbank soil erosion caused by the rise in sea level.
Photo: Kelera Sovasiga Tuisawau
The Pacific Islands Forum Foreign Ministers Meeting was held in Suva on Thursday, ahead of the Forum Leaders Retreat.
According to Australia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the meeting is an opportunity for the Pacific family to discuss the importance of regional unity in the current strategic environment, COVID recovery, as well as our collective international advocacy, including on the critical issue of climate change.
“Australia is committed to bringing new energy and resources to strengthening our Pacific Family and this will be reflected in our engagement with the Pacific Islands Forum – the pre-eminent Pacific institution.”
Australia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Penny Wong, will return to Fiji next week on her fourth visit to the Pacific as Minister.
Australia’s Pat Conroy, Minister for International Development and the Pacific represented the Foreign Minister in person at Thursday’s meeting in Suva.
New Zealand’s Associate Foreign Minister, Aupito William Sio, was also in Suva representing Aotearoa New Zealand at the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) Foreign Ministers’ Meeting on Thursday.
He attended at the request of Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta, who was unable to travel to the meeting after contracting COVID-19.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will attend the meeting next week.
Ms Ardern recently said that the Pacific Islands Forum was critical in resolving regional problems and local security issues should be resolved locally.
“New Zealand is committed to the Pacific Islands Forum as the vehicle for addressing regional challenges,” Ms Ardern said.
Feedback: adi.sovasiga@fijisun.com.fj
