Fijian Head of Delegation, Representative of Pacific Islands Forum chair expresses lack of urgency in COP27 negotiation rooms

Enough with the talks and deliver on your Glasgow commitments!

That was the reminder posed by the Fijian Delegation Head Fiji’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Dr Satyendra Prasad who spoke on behalf of Fijian Prime Minister and Pacific Islands Forum Chair Voreqe Bainimarama.

While summing up week one of COP27, Mr Satyendra said they were caught by surprise that too many countries were still negotiating in negotiation rooms as if the crisis was still in code orange or amber alert.

“They fail to understand that it is in code red and code extreme red which is pretty disappointing,” he said.

“That level of urgency needs to come inside the negotiating room. All countries came to Glasgow last year and made very clear and firm commitments, they need to deliver!”

He said it was time for these countries to live up to their commitments and sliding back was not an option.

“Renegotiating the commitments is not an option because our planet is now in code red and the way the climate crisis expresses itself in our pacific region is in extreme code red. That is very clear!”

Pacific Islands Forum Secretary General Henry Puna speaks with Commonwealth Secretary General Patricia Scotland during a talanoa session at the Moana Blue Pacific Pavillion in Sharm El-Shiekh, Egypt on November 13, 2022.

G20 Meet

Mr Prasad said commitments the world made in Glasgow still don’t add up to 1.5.

He added that as of now all of the global commitments add up to 1.7 degrees Celsius.

“The message to G20, the 20 largest economies in the world who together contribute 80 per cent of the greenhouse emissions in the world that will be meeting in Bali next week, from the Pacific Islands is that you need deeper, faster and more substantial cuts. We need to get back to the 1.5 pathway.

“We hope that they too understand the scale of urgency that our plant now faces.

“1.5 is fundamental because we cannot imagine a future that lies ahead of 1.5.”

He added that COP27 was supposed to be an implementation COP and the most important fundamental of implementation was finance.

“It is the building block for implementation,” he said.

“Countries need to first deliver on the $100billion finance that has been made. There is no excuse whatsoever for not delivering on the $100billion finance package.”

Story by: inoke.rabonu@fijisun.com.fj