Leaders’ summit ends without unity on climate change, but with signs of a new approach to fisheries.

PORT MORESBY – Kiribati President Anote Tong has begrudgingly accepted that not all the Pacific Island Forum nations have agreed on climate change.

The 46th meeting of Forum leaders ended with an “agreement to disagree” on the contentious issue.

Small island states like Kiribati and Palau had called for greater action from Forum members New Zealand and Australia.

However both countries made no commitments to reduce emissions further so that global temperatures might stay below 1.5 degrees Celcius above pre-industrial levels.

They are sticking with the United Nations promoted limit of two degrees.

President Tong says he accepts their position.

“It’s not the best outcome that we would have liked but I think we must respect that whether we accept that or not is a different question.

“At this point and time we would like to be able to sit down as colleagues and agree on the range of numbers rather than one or the other and I think this is the way we have come out of this meeting.”

Forum leaders say they will recognise the UN target of two degrees as necessary while also pointing out the validity of the lower target because of the plight of smaller islands states.

The Forum finally released its official communiqué on Friday, outlining the commitments of the leaders over the next 12 months.

The communiqué was issued more than 12 hours after the end of Thursday’s leaders’ retreat.

Leaders reiterated their concerns that climate change remains the greatest threat to the well-being of Pacific people and called for the adoption of a legally binding agreement at the UN climate change conference at the end of the year.

But now, after the regional talks, it seems Pacific island states of the Forum have agreed to disagree with New Zealand and Australia on the target.

While the Forum declared that a more than 1.5 °C increase in temperature would severely impact small island states, it decided it didn’t require New Zealand and Australia to commit to that declaration.

New Zealand Prime Minister John Key suggested Pacific nations needed to put more pressure on even bigger nations like China, as his country was only responsible for 0.15 percent of the world’s emissions. Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott agreed.

“Australia and New Zealand have already announced very ambitious targets for emissions reduction to take to the Paris conference,” Abbott said.

The chair of the Melanesian Spearhead Group said leaders in the region need to work together to combat climate change.

The comment from Solomon Islands Prime Minister, Manasseh Sogavare, comes after his fellow Pacific Islands Forum leaders failed to reach a unified position on the issue.

Sogavare also said leaders of this region must aggressively invest in climate change research and develop robust strategies to implement adaptation measures.

He says the Pacific must rapidly deploy technologies in carbon capture and storage, clean fuel and renewable energy, and reduce the expansion of deforestation through agriculture, forestry and other land use.

Another big issue during the week was the situation in West Papua.

Forum leaders say they recognise Indonesia’s sovereignty over the province but are still concerned about human rights abuses there.

Chair PNG Prime Minister Peter O’Neill will now approach Jakarta to express the concerns and hold discussions over a fact-finding mission.

On the issue of fishing, the Forum is to examine the implementation of a quota management system by visiting New Zealand to study fisheries management there with the country being put up as an model for sustainable fisheries.

The leaders agreed to change the approach to fisheries management in the region.

The decision has been made to move away from the vessel per day system (VPD) where time was allocated to boats and countries, to a New Zealand-led quota system.

President Tong says the change is timely given the dangers of over-fishing occurring via the VPD.

New Zealand’s Prime Minister John Key says the move is a must.

“The resources earned by the countries in the region is based off selling access to your fisheries on a daily basis. That’s fine except technology is changing, boats are larger.

“They are becoming more proficient and so a greater catch is occurring and if that continues then there is real risk in the sustainability of particularly the tuna fishery.

“Fisheries ministers from all forum nations have now been invited to New Zealand to examine the management system in place.”

However, the chief executive of the Parties to the Nauru Agreement, Transform Aqorau, has already come out saying a quota-based fisheries system won’t work in the Pacific.

Dr Aqorau said the only areas in which unsustainable catches are occurring are those outside the control of its Vessel Day Scheme.

“A lot of those statement are not made with a good understanding of what is happening on the ground in the fisheries.

“I think their hearts are in the right place but they need to learn a little bit more about our fisheries and not just simply apply what they think can work in New Zealand to the Pacific Islands.”

However Transform Aqorau says New Zealand should be learning from the Pacific about tuna fisheries management and not the other way round.

He has invited New Zealand fisheries officials to visit the PNA in Majuro to learn more about tuna fisheries management.

At the Forum, New Zealand announced it is to provide US$30 million over the next three years to help the region change the way it manages declining fish stocks.

Australia also announced it would invest US$13 million into maritime surveillance within the region to help police the fisheries.

The other two big issues on the Forum agenda were cervical cancer and ICT connectivity but they were somewhat put on the backburner with leaders saying developing a regional approach will require further time, but the creation of an ICT Advisory Council would be looked at.

Somewhat upstaging the efforts of the Forum was Australia’s immigration minister being overheard making a poor-taste joke about the plight of Pacific countries facing rising sea levels from climate change.

Peter Dutton was speaking with Prime Minister Abbott who had just returned from the summit in Papua New Guinea, where the threat of climate change on low lying islands was the key focus.

The host of the next Forum summit was confirmed with the Federated States of Micronesia holding the event next year. Samoa will be the venue in 2017; Nauru in 2018 and Tuvalu in 2019. - RNZI/PNC sources