“Scary list” of consequences: Pacific region pleads for help ahead of climate summit

Friday, October 8, 2021

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Pacific region sends appeal for help ahead of climate change summit

In harsh words, Pacific Islands are urging the global community to act on climate change. The climate summit in Glasgow must lead to concrete commitments. Otherwise threatened with “unimaginable” consequences. It is about the “disappearance of entire islands and large stretches of coast”.

Three weeks before the start of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland, heads of government in the Pacific region appealed to the world community to achieve compliance with the 2015 Paris climate goals. Fiji’s Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama said in an online summit with the European Union that small states would use the “full force” of their “moral authority” against environmental offenders who failed to present a “strong commitment” in Glasgow.

196 countries and the European Union will participate in “COP26”. Bainimarama called on the meeting to lead concrete commitments to meet the Paris climate goals. Accordingly, global warming should be limited to 1.5 °C from the pre-industrial era. To this end, the head of government in Fiji also called for an end to the use of fossil fuels. He said Glasgow could not end with “good intentions”.

The consequences of inaction are “unimaginable”, Bainimarama said. It is about the disappearance of entire islands and large stretches of coast in Lagos, Venice, Miami and Bangladesh. Climate change will lead to increased migrant movements and wildfires as well as the destruction of homes, farms and ecosystems. Bainimarama said the “horror list” isn’t closed yet.

“Which islands should we save?”

Marshall Islands President David Kabua said those who are not in a direct fight against the climate crisis cannot imagine the urgency. “We are dealing with the toughest questions,” Kabua said. “Which islands should we save, what if our people had to leave against their will, how would we maintain our culture?”

Naomi Matafa, Samoa’s first head of government since July, said the effects of frequent cyclones and droughts, heavy rains and floods, warming of the oceans and acidification were already being felt. These effects are “injurious to our health, our well-being, our livelihoods and the way we live”.