Less talk, more action on climate change - Kiribati PM

Transcript

The president of Kiribati, Anote Tong, says is hopeful agreements made on climate change at the Small Islands Developing States in Apia conference will turn into real action.

More than 130 partnerships between NGOs and governments on climate change and disaster risk management have been registered at the SIDS conference this week.

Mr Tong says Kiribati is already experiencing the effects of climate change, with the devastating impact of higher tides and extreme weather events.

He told Mary Baines it's time the world responded to climate change in a moral, responsible manner.

ANOTE TONG: There is definitely not enough being done about the impact of climate change. I know there has been a lot of research  and I think the research is telling us what we should be doing, what is going to be happening. We are trying to define our response to those challenges. Nobody has been coming forward enough. The global community is not coming forward. I don't want to point fingers at Australia and New Zealand. They have been making a contribution. The question is will it solve our problem? The answer is no. We still have a huge problem. There is a huge gap between what needs to be done and what has been done.

MARY BAINES: People have criticised conferences like SIDS, saying a lot of verbal agreements are put in place but long-term they don't provide solutions. What's your view on this?

AT: Well, I think you should read some of my speeches - exactly that. Not so many words but a lot more action is required. I have been saying the words but I am encouraged because there has been a shift in global opinion. The United States has changed position, China is changing, in 2009 when this was being discussed seriously they took a very different position, very opposite position. So we are moving. The countries that matter are moving and so perhaps there is hope but the question is will they move in time in order to be able to deal with our issues and I think that is the question.

MB: So what would you like to come out of this conference in regards to climate change?

AT: Well during the discussions that I have been having here, when I delivered my statement at the plenary, one of the comments I made was that we have formed a coalition of atoll island nations on climate change. Why we did that is because we remain very very concerned that there is not enough action because we are feeling the impact. We want to make it clear that for us climate change it is not an event that is taking place in the future - it is already happening. We are seeing our communities dislocated. We are seeing a lot of communities suffering because of the saltwater intrusion and destroying food crops, that is happening. Every parliament I am getting this. I just had parliament the week before and all of this was coming and the answer is there is nothing we can do, as yet. The result of the high tides at the beginning of this year - we are still trying to repair that. We have nowhere near enough of the resources that we need.

MB: In taking action, what can be done? Is it about funding, mitigation, adaptation - what's the next step?

AT: For us, mitigation is really something that maybe should have happened a long time before. What we are dealing with now is what is happening now. What will definitely happen in the future. We have to contend with the rising seas, the impact of the changes in the tides so the tides are having a greater impact, they are coming with more frequency, and so the people are becoming concerned because climate change is becoming common knowledge and so when you get an extra high tide people begin to say 'this is it' but of course we are talking about now, what would be the situation in 10, 20, 50 years from now. We can definitely say for sure that it is going to be worse than it is today.

MB: What is your view on creating a new category of refugees? Climate change refugees?

AT: We never want to be refugees. I have always resented and rejected the notion of being refugees and the reason is because we have more than enough time to deal with the issue. We have years and we will have decades to deal with this - to relocate our people because at the moment what can be done and what is being done is being available through the normal channels of migration - you can migrate provided you can fulfill certain requirements. So what our task should be is to ensure that we provide our people with those requirements so that they can migrate as people through the normal channels - not as refugees - so that they can go there as skilled people with dignity - not as refugees, please.

MB: So relocation within Kiribati? I understand there is some land in Fiji?

AT: It has got to be offshore because the islands are about the same level. So to get out of the water you really have to find higher ground, which we don’t have. So yes relocation has to be somewhere else. It has got to be a matter of choice. We want to provide people with the opportunity to make that choice and to offer them those choices we have got to prepare them so they can have that choice.