Facing climate change reality

The wet weather now sweeping the country after Cyclone Yasa should not surprise us. It is induced by climate change and fuelled by global warming.

It is no respite for victims of Cyclone Yasa struggling to recover after the devastation.

This new round of adverse weather reinforces the reality of the impact of climate change.

We cannot afford to treat it lightly or ignore it and we should be prepared for more wild weather events. It’s not all our fault that we are facing the full brunt of category five cyclones and frequent rain and floods and rising sea levels.

At the same we cannot afford to sit back and do nothing.

While Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama and his team are raising our plight at international forums, we should do everything within our power to protect our people, assets and resources from the impact of climate change.

We must continue with our commitments on mitigation and adaptation.

The root cause of climate change is pollution – air, ocean/waterways and land pollution.

We know that the big polluters are usually the developed and industrialised nations which Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama described as the coalition of the selfish.

Selfish in the sense that their token response to a global call for a reduction in carbon emission has made a mockery of the Paris Agreement adopted at COP21 in 2015.

The agreement set a goal to limit global warming to well below 2-degrees Celsius, preferably to 1.5-degrees compared to pre-industrial levels.

Indications are that the world seems to be getting warmer. While the big polluters talk about seeking alternative cleaner energy sources, there is little evidence or sign that coal producers and users, for example, are making a significant shift away from fossil fuel.

As long as they continue, we will continue to experience traumatic weather events, some of which may be the likes we have never seen before.

One of the guilty parties is Australia. It’s economy’s reliance on coal as a source of energy, employment and secondary industries cannot be over emphasised. At the same time we recognise that Australia is our biggest trading and bilateral relations partner in the region. We owe Australia a lot in terms of aid and cyclone relief assistance as we are now witnessing with the Cyclone Yasa rehabilitation work. The Australian help has been phenomenal and we cannot thank them enough for their humanitarian efforts.

But that does not mean that we stop asking Australia to honour its commitment to implement the provisions of the Paris Agreement. It is our moral duty and responsibility for the sake of our future posterity. Scientists have warned us of the catastrophic consequences of failing to reduce global warming and trashing our land and oceans.

On air pollution, some activities that contribute to carbon emissions include:

■ Burning coal, oil and gas. It produces carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide

■ Cutting down trees

■ Increasing livestock farming

■ Using fertilisers that contain nitrogen and produce nitrous oxide emissions

We can help in the climate change battle by using solar and other renewable sources of energy, energy efficient appliances, turn off switch when not in use, stop littering and ban plastics. Then we mean business.