Climate Change

The 2015 Paris Agreement commits countries to limit the global average temperature rise to well below 2C above pre-industrial levels, and to aim for 1.5C.

Scientists have said crossing the 1.5C threshold risks unleashing far more severe climate change effects on people, wildlife and ecosystems.

Preventing it requires almost halving global CO2 emissions by 2030 from 2010 levels and cutting them to net-zero by 2050 - an ambitious task that scientists, financiers, negotiators and activists at COP26 are debating how to achieve and pay for.

The EU's Ambassador to the Pacific, Sujiro Seam, who's at the UN Climate Conference, said all stakeholders lobbied for an ambitious outcome and accessibility to climate funding.

Mr Seam said the EU will need to show the Pacific how best it can support the implementation of the recently adopted Climate Change Act.

"This is a package of available financing of 197 million Euros, almost 500 million Fijian dollars for the Years 2021 to 2027. This will be implemented in the countries of the Pacific with a very strong focus on climate change."

World leaders have agreed a deal that aims to halt and reverse global deforestation over the next decade as part of a multibillion-dollar package to tackle human-caused greenhouse gas emissions.

Xi Jinping, Jair Bolsonaro and Joe Biden are among the leaders who will commit to the declaration at Cop26 in Glasgow on Tuesday to protect vast areas, ranging from the eastern Siberian taiga to the Congo basin, home to the world’s second largest rainforest.

In a video message, she said many people hoped the "time for words has now moved to the time for action".

She urged them to act "for our children and our children's children" and "rise above the politics of the moment".

The Queen added she took "great pride" in how her "dear late husband" Prince Philip promoted environmental issues.

The 95-year-old monarch had been scheduled to attend the United Nations conference in Glasgow. But she pre-recorded her address last week at Windsor Castle after being advised to rest following medical checks.

Six years ago, I was one of hundreds of official delegates that stood in a makeshift UN plenary hall at Le Bourget when the Paris agreement was adopted after years of negotiations.

It was then, and may well remain, the most significant thing I have ever been part of in my life.

The meeting will take place on the 31^st October-12 November 2021 in Glasgow, Scotland.

Prime Minister James Marape is also expected to attend.

Minister Mori said the country will demand that Papua New Guinea be compensated for preserving our rainforest for the global community.

They also now happen in more areas of the world than before, presenting unprecedented challenges to human health and to how we live.

The total number of days above 50C has increased in each decade since 1980. On average, between 1980 and 2009, temperatures passed 50C about 14 days a year.

The number rose to 26 days a year between 2010 and 2019.

In the same period, temperatures of 45C and above occurred on average an extra two weeks a year.

On Ormot Island in the Morobe province, the islanders share the impacts of the shrinking islands due to the rise in sea level.

Ormat Islander Sipora Nargara said, “We are islanders. We live on fish and there is no fish where they wanted us to resettle. We are not used to life there.”

In Milne Bay, provincial disaster officer Steven Tobessa said the province has over 600 small islands and atolls. He anticipates locations for these islanders in the near future.

The two-day virtual meeting is a lead up to the COP26 Conference on Rainforest of Nations in Glasgow, Scotland in November this year.

Minister Mori said PNG has become a victim of climate change, an issue that we did not create.

The Carteret Islanders in Bougainville are the first climate change refugees in the world. The rising sea levels have forced them to leave their island to resettle on the mainland.

The discussion was focused on the new framework of the European Union-PNG Partnership under the new soon to be adopted Europe Union -Caribbean and the Pacific Agreement (EU-ACP Agreement).

Both leaders have agreed for the Department of Environment Conservation and Climate Change to play the leading role in implementing the key areas in responding to climate change in the country.

The new partnership under the new EU-ACP Agreement is aligned with the EU Green Deal global ambition for climate change action and biodiversity preservation.