Pacific still hoping for Aus and NZ support on climate change
Key Pacific climate change advocates have renewed calls for New Zealand and Australia to lead the charge on the negotiations in Paris at the end of the month.
Transcript
Key Pacific climate change advocates have renewed calls for New Zealand and Australia to lead the charge on the negotiations in Paris at the end of the month.
Two of the region's most vocal on climate change, the Prime Minister of Tuvalu Enele Sopoaga and the Foreign Affairs Minister of the Marshall Islands Tony de Brum say they have not given up on their Pacific big brothers.
Mr de Brum spoke with Koroi Hawkins about the Pacific's hopes for Paris.
TONY DE BRUM: We are pressing very hard that the Paris agreement incorporates the long term goal of below two degrees or closer to the 1.5 than to the two as the Pacific countries have long agitated. We are also going to press very hard that five year cycles of review be set in the agreement so that people can come back on a regular basis and up their ambitions as well as taking into account technology and science that will be evolving rapidly we estimate. Also we want to make sure that the funds for adaptation and for mitigation, the green climate funds is established as promised in Copenhagen and later by the developed countries so that the vulnerable states can have a fair chance at buying time for the world to catch up on climate reality and so that we can have a carbon free no emissions world by the middle of the century. We are hopeful also that there will be some there will be some way to address the issue of loss and damage in a way that does not, does not point fingers or place blame or liability on those countries that must be part of the agreement and must be part of the solution. So it is a tall order but we think that if we can get our friends together and work hard we can probably come away with an agreement that we can probably carry back to our people. Otherwise it is pretty grim out there.
KOROI HAWKINS: Yes, two of the closest friends of the Pacific, Australia and New Zealand traditionally, are not on board the Pacific climate change wagon so to speak. How significant will that be to the negotiations do you feel?
TDB: We still hold out hope that, and Australia and New Zealand are not just friends of the Pacific they are Pacific islands. Big Pacific islands but nevertheless still Pacific islands. And we still call upon Australia and New Zealand to take a robust leadership position and advocate for their neighbours and for the survival of the Pacific and the world. They must be part of the solution.
KH: Now based on previous COPs it has been very difficult to get the developed countries to agree on anything climate change. What makes you think there will be an agreement this time?
TDB: We have only one chance to correct this now and I mean we have had some good luck and some bad luck in the past but we have made great strides in this five year cycle for example and this 1.5 and two degrees. All of these things were the main concerns of the Pacific states and the other vulnerable states throughout the world that people thought we were crazy for even bringing up. But they are now part of the mainstream momentum towards the agreement in Paris. We have to have an agreement in Paris that can be sellable to our constituencies that can instill hope and some strong sense of security for the future and we want to make sure that the world understands this and I think that if they understand it we can come away from Paris with an agreement acceptable to all.
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