Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama says he is hopeful COP21 will conclude successfully.

In his first public statement since his return from Paris, Mr Bainimarama said in Suva yesterday: “I am positive about the results that will come out of COP21 and that Fiji will achieve the climate targets of 1.5 degree Celsius   of global reduction in emissions.”

Mr Bainimarama cut short his stay in Paris and returned home after receiving the news of the death of his elder brother Ratu Meli Bainimarama. (See page 3 for funeral report).

He left Paris after delivering a stirring address to the United Nations Climate Conference of Parties (COP21).

Mr Bainimarama said: “The important part was our Head of State delivery that I did on Monday.

“We are doing what we can to help ourselves and our message in Paris is simple.

“We made our address and we made our plea with the rest of the Pacific Leaders where we called on industrialised countries to act now and save small island states from disappearing.”

In his address, he said: “We gather together in Paris as a member of the human family at a critical point in global history. And as the leader of a Small Island Developing State, I have travelled 16,000 kilometres across the world with a message to you from the people of the Pacific.

“It is an SOS message. We are in grave distress – in the words of the Suva Declaration, our collective communiqué – grave peril. And we appeal for your urgent assistance to save us.

“Every Small Island Developing State and  low lying area of the world is threatened. We in the Pacific seem destined to suffer the most due to rise in sea level as icecaps melt and the average global temperature climbs because of the carbon emissions of the industrialised nations.

“It is now time for the industrialised nations to do what they must do to save us and save our planet.”