Stalling of key negotiating priorities irks climate warriors
‘It’s not only hard for our region to get visas, it is hard to mobilise the funding, it is hard for us to get here. Most of our negotiators are travelling close to 30 hours to be here to make these conversations.’
With COP27 coming to an end on November 18 and negotiations wrapping up, young climate activists from the region have expressed disappointment on the setback of key negotiating priorities of the Pacific at COP27.
This was in the areas of loss and damage in the region, phasing out of fossil fuels, and the 1.5degree Celsius commitment.
Speaking during a press conference in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, on Wednesday, 350.org Pacific managing director Joseph Sikulu said young NGOs, CSOs and youths were fighting to keep 1.5 in the text.
He said the region was constantly finding it a burden to try and attend conversations held at COP each year.
Not only was it hard for the region to obtain visas, Mr Sikulu said it was also difficult to mobilise the funding to get to COP venues.
“Most of our negotiators are travelling close to 30 hours to be here to make these conversations,” he said.
“When we get into the COP space, what is happening at the moment is, we have been told that for things like loss and damage, we need another process
We are frustrated, tired and fatigued. But we are not just our impacts, we are climate leadership Joseph Sikulu 350.org Pacific managing director
or another workshop to figure out what the process is going to look like.
“Which means our region has to, once again, travel to attend these workshops that will happen here, in Europe, in this part of the world, mobilising funding that we don’t have to make it here,” he said.
“We are frustrated, tired and fatigued.”
To make this process more inclusive, Mr Sikulu believes meetings must be hosted where the most affected communities are.
He said Tuvalu and Vanuatu were the first state nation parties in the world to push for a fossil fuel nonproliferation treaty.
“We need a fossil fuel phase out, not a phase down,” he said.
“We are here to show our leaders that as a Pacific, we are behind them. The legacy of our leaders is having 1.5 engrained into the Paris agreement, we are here to fight to keep it in the text.
“We need those in the decision room right now to hear us and to keep 1.5 in the text. It is a limit, not a target.”