APEC meeting to put climate rhetoric to the test

WELLINGTON: Pacific Rim leaders will begin a virtual summit Friday, facing pressure to back up ambitious rhetoric on climate change and chart a path to pandemic recovery.

The annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit brings together leaders from 21 nations, including US President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.

Xi is among those who have talked on the sidelines of the New Zealand-hosted event, stressing the need for the Covid-19 recovery to fuel ‘green, low-carbon and sustainable development’.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in said switching to clean energy sources amounted to nothing less than ‘a great transformation of civilisation’ affecting all of humanity.

But the major climate-related reform announced so far has been an agreement to push for a freeze on fossil fuel subsidies – an idea APEC leaders first touted more than a decade ago but failed to implement.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who is hosting the summit virtually because of the pandemic, admitted the action did not go far enough.

“Do we need to be more ambitious than this? Absolutely,” she said.

“We would of course like to see a world where there are no fossil fuel subsidies in our economies, that’s long been a position of New Zealand, which we will continue to advocate.”

“If the world is not ready to take bold action on climate change, then the world must be ready for the disastrous results of climate change,” she added.

The leaders are expected to issue a communique early Saturday detailing the outcomes of the meeting at a press conference fronted by Ardern.