Tuvalu PM unhappy with lack of commitment to Climate Change Insurance
Funafuti:
Tuvalu’s Prime Minister, Enele Sopoaga left the Apia Pacific Islands Forum Leaders meeting in the weekend an unhappy man.
Because there was no commitment to climate change Insurance as his country proposed.
Mr Sopoaga insisted that the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) leaders should focus their discussions and deliberations on issues of common concern to the Pacific and not on “high politics such as North Korea.”
Speaking to Talamua just after the meeting communiqué was released, Mr Sopoaga was very vocal in his thoughts about the North Korean issue and how the Pacific leaders responded to it quicker and made very little mention of the climate change insurance.
“We feel for the people of North Korea, but we have nothing to do with it, and to deal with this rather than looking at climate change, which is as dangerous as what Korea is doing is absurd,” insisted Mr Sopoaga.
He went further and accused Australia of being the biggest coal exporter from this region and supplying the raw materials to China and Korea.
Australia’s Prime Minister, Malcom Turnbull attended the forum in his first visit to Samoa since becoming Prime Minister, and media commentators in Australia point out that coal and climate change will make no mention in the Apia Forum meeting since it’s a political issue in his constituency.
“The forum is supposed to discuss issues from its members and small island states in the context of the Forum, and if the Forum is no longer relevant for Small Island countries, then they (small island states) have the right to move away,” said Mr Sopoaga.
“Why should they come to a Forum that only supports political wishes of the big countries,” he added.
He also clarified the difference between the Green Climate Fund and the Disaster Risk Response.
“The Disaster Risk Response is under a different framework, nothing to do with climate change,” Mr Sopoaga explained.
He said the climate change insurance was flagged during the Istanbul Summit on Humanitarian Response last year and got filtered into the regional projects. Mr Sopoaga is also aware that Australia does not support the climate change insurance policy Tuvalu proposed.