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Referring to the latest UN Secretary-Common’s report Our Common Agenda, for a greater, greener, and safer future for all, Fiji’s Prime Minister Josaia V. Bainimarama outlined what that imaginative and prescient means for his nation.
“We would like islands inhabited by residents who stand with nature and never in opposition to it. We would like sustainable financial progress that’s powered by clear vitality and shielded from the impacts of local weather change. We would like sturdy and resilient well being programs, and we would like good jobs and revenue supported by a inexperienced and blue financial system.”
Fiji: ‘New frontiers of co-operation’
Nonetheless, the world is on a course which is pushing that future even additional out of attain, he warned. The brand new coronavirus is “burning by humanity like a bushfire –– and inequity is fanning the flames”, whereas climate-driven catastrophes equivalent to floods, heatwaves, fires and cyclones, have killed a whole bunch this yr alone and triggered immense harm.
“We should discover new frontiers of co-operation if we stand any likelihood of averting future pandemics – or staving off the worst of local weather change,” stated Mr. Bainimarama in a pre-recorded assertion.
“If Small States are to construct again greener, bluer, and higher, we’ll want an equal voice about and vote on choices that decide our future. Small States want our pursuits heard, understood, and acted upon.”
Full assertion here.
Vanuatu: Jobs in jeopardy
Simply weeks after the pandemic was declared in March 2020, Tropical Cyclone Harold struck Vanuatu, inflicting in depth devastation to the archipelago earlier than hitting the Solomon Islands, Fiji and Tonga.
Like many Pacific Island nations, Vanuatu was in a position to maintain COVID-19 at bay by swift lockdown measures, however these have “crippled” the native financial system, Prime Minister Bob Loughman Weibur stated in his pre-recorded handle.
Quickly closing the nation’s worldwide borders “meant transitioning from a well being menace to an financial emergency”, he stated, with many companies, notably people who depend on tourism, successfully shuttered.
“No vacationer arrivals and a lowered resident neighborhood instantly impacted the hospitality and building sectors, placing at the very least 8,000 formal jobs in jeopardy and affecting the livelihoods of tens of 1000’s of individuals within the casual sector. For greater than 1,000 licensed handicraft artisans, their incomes plummeted to near-zero.”
Full assertion here.
Tonga fears sea-level rise
Although it stays COVID-19 free, Tonga underlined its sturdy dedication to multilateralism. Prime Minister Pohiva Tu’i’onetoa expressed condolences to, and solidarity with, all nations which have misplaced residents to the illness whereas additionally confronting “unprecedented pure disasters and different tragedies.”
Tonga, which has a inhabitants of round 105,000, obtained vaccinations by the worldwide solidarity initiative, COVAX. Roughly one-third of the inhabitants has been inoculated thus far, and the goal is to achieve as much as 70 per cent by the tip of subsequent yr.
However the Prime Minister famous that Tonga is ranked the world’s second most at-risk nation in relation to pure disasters equivalent to cyclones, flooding and sea degree rise. Subsequently, assembly the objectives of the Paris Agreement on local weather change, which seeks to restrict international temperature rise to 1.5 levels above pre-industrial ranges, is a precedence, despite the fact that the nation’s contribution to greenhouse gasoline emissions is negligible.
“Ought to nations fail to cut back greenhouse gasoline emissions, presenting a excessive emissions state of affairs, it’s extremely doubtless that this may end in a rise on common of sea degree – 5 occasions that in low emissions, and such isn’t an choice particularly for Tonga and low-lying small island States within the Pacific and the remainder of the world,” he stated.
Full assertion here.
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