Fiji, PNG Snub Crucial Climate Change Roundtable Forum
By Ulamila Kurai Wragg in Apia, Pacific Magazine, October 15, 2008
Two major key players in the region Fiji and Papua New Guinea have snubbed the crucial Climate Change Roundtable discussion that starts in Samoa today, despite repeated requests from the organisers, South Pacific Regional Environmental Program (SPREP), to send in their government officials.
The regional organisation's Climate Change advisor Espen Ronneberg says they did their best to get official delegates from the two Melanesian countries to attend the fourth roundtable discussion where private and public sectors experts from the region will discuss and explore ways of consensus to address climate change.
This week's meeting funded by the Government of Switzerland in Apia will design what the region wants included in a post-2012 climate agreement that will replace the Kyoto Protocol and finalised in Copenhagen next year. However, before that the Pacific Climate Change Roundtable discussion agreement will head to Poznan in Poland in December at a ministerial level of discussion, leading up to Copenhagen.
Fiji and PNG, are just as accountable to attend this roundtable as regional member countries (French and US territories not included) given that they were given US$450,000 each to work on their Climate Change adaptation reports.
Ronneberg says the Pacific region is obviously one of the most vulnerable to Climate Change, in rising sea level, even though it emits only 0.03percent of the total carbon emission in the world, so a united front is required from leaders to address this issue. The issue of Climate Change is broken into two parts: the mitigating factors – measures to reduce greenhouse effects; and adaptation - which is the preparation to adapt to the many changes that it will bring about.
This year at the Leaders' Forum in Niue, where Climate Change was the theme, even though Fiji failed to attend, PNG and others championed climate change. They resolved their commitment to the ongoing development and implementation of Pacific-tailored approaches to combating climate change.
They also emphasised the great seriousness with which they regard the growing threat posed by climate change to the economic, social, cultural and environmental well-being and security of Forum members.
However, at the roundtable discussion today are non-governmental organisations from Fiji and PNG.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment