Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama will be going to a high level signing ceremony at the United Nations in New York next month, for the formal ratification of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

Mr Bainimarama, while speaking at the induction of permanent secretaries at Suvavou House yesterday, said he was prepared to face the UN meeting with a resolution to take up the issue with industrialised nations.

He said there was a need for industrialised countries to face up to their responsibilities to small island nations such as Fiji.

Mr Bainimarama said he would be going to the meeting with the strongest of messages that what had been agreed so far was not enough.

“It isn’t enough for them to reduce the carbon emissions that have produced this crisis in the first place,” Mr Bainimarama said.

“As we see it, they have a clear moral obligation to use some of their wealth to help us build our resilience; in this terrifying new era that they have helped bring about.”

Last month, Fiji became the first country to formally approve the UN Climate deal agreed by 195 nations in Paris last December.

Mr Bainimarama said Fiji intended to do all it could to put the issue of climate resilience building on the global agenda after the trauma the nation had suffered from Tropical Cyclone Winston.

He said it had been an extraordinary month last month.

“Easily one of the most testing in our nation’s history; four weeks of drama, tragedy and heartbreak,” Mr Bainimarama said.

“The loss of 44 of our people, many more injured, well in excess of 30,000 homes damaged or destroyed; and a total damage bill stretching into the hundreds of millions.”

He said Tropical Cyclone C Winston had tested Fiji’s capacity to weather the elements to the very limit.

“It has tested the resilience of Fiji’s people to cope with the loss of their loved ones, their homes and possessions and it had been one of the biggest tests of the Fijian character in the entire history of these islands,” he said.

“When nature unleashed its force in a way that no previous generation has ever experienced, we stood shoulder-to-shoulder as one nation, one people,” he said.

He said while Winston had been a crippling blow, with God’s help, Fijians would emerge from this ordeal stronger and even more united.

Edited by Filipe Naigulevu

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