Fiji acting for its own safety, says PM

FIJI is not going to the world wagging our fingers and demanding to be saved, says Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama.

He said Fiji was in “this” campaign to get tangible results.

“We’re acting to save ourselves — as best we can — and set an example the world can follow,” he said.

He highlighted this while speaking on Fiji’s role as cochair of the first UN conference on Oceans, to the launch of the Ocean pathway at COP23, to Fiji’s unrelenting effort — on behalf of all Pacific Small Island Developing States (PSIDS) — to engrain oceans in the processes of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) at the Commonwealth Secretariat climate change and ocean action event in Spain yesterday.

Mr Bainimarama said he was not only talking to leaders of governments and businesses.

“I’m talking about the ordinary people going about their lives, who are breathing air supplied by our oceans and eating food provided by our seas.

“At the end of the day, it is their individual actions and decisions that will make or break this campaign. It will come down to what they choose to buy, how they dispose of their waste, who they choose as their leaders, and how powerfully they use their voices to support this cause.”

The PM also encouraged Commonwealth nations to join Fiji in Lisbon next June at the second UN Oceans Conference to commit to large-scale EEZ protection.

“This week, I will lead a softlaunch of a new coalition of countries committed to 100 per cent integrated management of our exclusive economic zones (EEZs) with up to 30 per cent declared marine protected areas by 2030.”