Attorney-General and Minister for Economy, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says Pacific Island states should never back down in the fight for a strong reference to the ocean as an outcome of the COP27 that will be held at Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, later this year.

Mr Sayed-Kaiyum was speaking at the Pacific High-Level Political Champions on Climate Change meeting held at the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat in Suva on Sunday night.

The meeting was held in the lead up to the 51st Pacific Islands Forum Leaders meeting that would begin today.

Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said the region was concerned with the back cloud that seemed to be hovering over COP27.

“Post COVID-19 we have seen significant backsliding in terms of global ambition, and this is a fact,” he said.

“We have seen issues such as accelerating the global fuel and food crisis which should be providing the rationale and justification to accelerate collective action from the developed  world.”

“The global community faces major challenges when it comes to the Paris agreement to assure and enable consistent adequate support resourcing for climate vulnerable nations.”

“While developed countries may have the technologies, financial reserves, and diversified economies to shove off major world- wide disruptions, the global south does not.”

COP26 Promise Failure

He said the backdrop of COP26 was the failure of developed countries to deliver against the $100billion target for climate finance.

“This pledge was made a decade ago and was due to be achieved in 2020. Developed countries have overshot this deadline and at the same time these same countries maintain the fossil fuel subsidies and energy investments which will cause us to overshoot the 1.5degree goal,” he said.

“The 2020 finance goal was achievable and the failure to reach it in a timely fashion only
increased aggregate financing needs, gaps and indeed deficits.”

He said the region should continue to require broad participation to unlock financing to support our oceans.

“This includes the need to increase private sector engagement, scale up funding for oceanic research and use capital markets to scale up investments. We want to see strong references to the ocean in the COP27 outcome.”

Also at the meeting were Secretary General (SG) of the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PIFS), Henry Puna, Director General of the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), Sefanaia Nawadra, Palau’s Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Environment Steven Victor, representing the Cook Islands, Tepaeru Herrmann, Secretary for Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Immigration, and Tuvalu’s Minister for Finance and Climate Change, Seve Paeniu, who also joined virtually.

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