Fiji seeks global consensus for climate action

In pursuit of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5-degrees Celsius, Fiji is kicking its global consensus-building efforts into overdrive in 2020 to secure decisive, ambitious climate action.

Fiji’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Satyendra Prasad said Fiji’s Mission in New York is building a unified approach among regional and international partners in the call for urgency and action towards climate adaptation.

He said COP25 2019 held in Madrid, Spain, showed that there was still a lot of work which needed to be achieved in combatting climate change.

He said reducing global warming to 1.5°C was a global imperative.

Reflecting on COP25, Ambassador Prasad said the integration of an oceans pathway into climate change strategies was an excellent step in the right direction.

He said the inclusion of oceans was testament to Fiji’s advocacy on oceans. He said the achievement was attributed to the persistent leadership of Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama to place oceans at the heart of climate action.

“This is a significant achievement for Fiji. Fiji and Sweden co-hosted the first UN Oceans Conference at the United Nations in New York in 2017. The world has slowly come around to our view – that the oceans is at the centre stage and not the sidelines of our global effort to fight climate change.”

Mr Prasad said the Developing Island States of the Pacific contributed the least to the climate crisis, yet stood to lose the most from climaterelated impacts.