Fiji conference shapes Paris approach

SUVA – It is hoped the outcomes of a climate resilience conference in Fiji will give the region a strong platform before next month’s global climate change conference in Paris.

But the Fiji prime minister has warned that up against the big industrialized countries, Pacific Island nations could leave Paris disappointed.

Participants at the Fiji-hosted conference heard first-hand accounts of the effects of climate change on people in a region that features low-lying island nations.

The first community in Fiji forced to relocate as a result of climate change moved further inland last year after rising sea levels eroded much of their land. The village headman Sailosi Ramatu says uprooting 154 people was traumatic.

“To relocate we have to relocate three things – we relocate the people, we relocate the church, and we relocate the government essentials within the village. To relocate is a last option because it’s like forcing us to move from where we were born.”

A youth advocate from Papua New Guinea says climate change is already impacting on basic human rights in her country, including access to education.

Arianne Kassman from the NGO 350 Pacific says the lack of rain has forced many schools to close. “Children are suffering from malnutrition, severe dehydration.”

There are international estimates that women and children are 14 times more likely to die during natural disasters, which was a large focus of the conference. A number of health ministers pointed out that while the Pacific is feeling the brunt of climate change, it’s not their countries that are causinf it.

Tuvalu’s health minister Satini Manuella told conference goers that the countries that cause climate change should be held more accountable.

UNFPA Deputy Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific, Lubna Baqi, says the timing of the conference is significant given the Paris climate conference is taking place next month.

The governments of more than 190 nations will gather at COP 21 to discuss a possible new global agreement on climate change and Baqi says the Pacific needs to go in with a clear voice.

Fiji prime minister Frank Bainimarama talked about his sense of foreboding.

“I fear that our interests are about to be sacrificed, that might will triumph over reason, even though the argument of urgent and decisive action is unassailable all because of the inaction and gross irresponsiblity of what I unashamedly call the coalition of the selfish.”

He says the Pacific must show no signs of accepting its fate, because that will just encourage the industrialised nations to maintain the status quo.

- Dateline Pacific