Small island states call for help and action

Pacific leaders have declared their solidarity with small island nations by calling on world powers to increase climate finance.

The Alliance of Small Island States, which has represented the interests of 39 small nations on the world stage since 1990, on Wednesday ratified its first leaders’ statement since 2014.

At the virtual summit, held alongside the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly, the 39 member countries of the Alliance discussed the devastating effects of the climate crisis and their challenges in achieving development goals sustainable development of the United Nations.

The leaders’ statement is an act of solidarity ahead of the 2021 UN Climate Change Conference in November, where crucial climate negotiations will take place.

“For the Pacific (Small Island Developing States), climate change is our top priority. We have all the evidence we need…Our survival depends on what we achieve on the ground,” Palau President Surangel Whipps Jr said. real leadership and understanding the desperate situation. faced by (Small Island Developing States) and the global community.

The need for financial assistance from the international community was an important issue for Pacific Island leaders at the summit, which was noted in the statement, as smaller nations did not have adequate access to funding to mitigate and adapt to climate change. And although US President Joe Biden announced he would seek to double his climate funding to developing countries to $11.4 billion by 2024, more was needed.

Josaia Voreqe Bainimarama, Prime Minister of Fiji, spoke about the difference between small island nations and global powers, contrasting the different access to funding for climate change recovery, calling it “apartheid for the access to climate finance”.

“We need a revolutionary multilateralism that is finally fair, with small island developing states at its heart,” Bainimarama said. “We cannot sit on the sidelines as decisions are made that determine whether we thrive or struggle in the future.”

Another key call in the statement was for the Group of 20 nations to take responsibility for its subsidies to the fossil fuel industry, the largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions worldwide, for which at least 1.6 trillion dollars had been spent since the signing of the Paris Agreement in 2015.

The subsidies illustrate “an unfair competitive advantage given to the fossil fuel industry that creates artificial barriers to the growth of the renewable energy industry and locks in carbon-intensive infrastructure,” according to the statement. The statement urges major emitters to phase out all subsidies by 2023.

Secretary of the Papua New Guinea Prime Minister’s Department, Ivan Pomaleu, said the actions of these powers on climate change should be “proportionate to their levels of emissions”.

“We have to take action rather than keep talking,” Pomaleu said.

Gaston Browne, Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda and Chairman of the Alliance, said: “As the spokesperson for the most vulnerable countries, we note that the challenges are great but that there are solutions, and the momentum is here and now.