Climate Change

France stops its Green Fund

The decision will affect dozens of projects in France's overseas territories.

The overseas minister Annick Giradin has told the National Assembly that the next budget has no provision to feed the fund which was meant to mitigate against climate change.

Ms Girardin said her ministry cannot be the only one taking care of the effects of climate change, suggesting that other ministries and agencies share the responsibility.

The cut affects dozens of projects, including some in French Polynesia worth almost $US30 million.

Large team from Fiji heads off to COP23

Fiji's prime minister Frank Bainimarama is presiding over the 11 day long talks, known as COP 23, which starts next week.

The Fijian government said it was ensuring Fiji's "Bula" spirit is stamped on the occasion by providing cultural shows, a Fijian drua or sailing canoe in the main foyer and talanoa-style negotations.

Fiji, along with most Pacific island countries, wants to see a one-point-five-degree limit on global temperature rise above pre industrial levels.

 

Aust to face heat over new coal mine at Fiji climate meeting

Fiji is co-hosting the UN conference on climate change in Germany and is holding a series of preliminary meetings this week in Nadi.

Most Pacific countries have long backed limiting temperature rise to 1.5 degrees celsius abover pre-industrial levels, while New Zealand and Australia have committed to two-degrees in line with most other developed nations.

At the meeting, Australia is set to face criticism over the planned Adani coal mine in Queensland and PICAN's Genevieve Jiva said it should not go ahead.

Stand up as warriors of climate change!

It’s time the country joins forces with other Pacific Island countries and stand up against climate change as warriors do.

This agenda is being pushed by a group of youth who are considered the Pacific Climate Warriors.

A brief interview with David Ropa stressed on the initiative for the Pacific Climate Warriors’ Declaration on Climate Change.

He urged more women and children to sign this declaration, as they are the most affected during times of disasters.

Fighting climate change in the Pacific

​David Rupa, a young advocate in PNG, points us in the direction of 350.org.

This is a youth led grassroots movement working with communities, to fight climate change from the Pacific Islands. 

 

A timely and urgent move.

A step in this direction is the Pacific Climate Warriors Declaration on Climate Change.

This declaration is ones commitment to a safer and better future.

Pacific campaign wants to exclude NZ and Australia from climate talks

Have Your Sei, led by global advocacy group 350.org, is encouraging people from the Pacific region to lead climate change action by signing a Pacific Climate Warriors Declaration to be presented at the United Nations Climate Change Conference later this year.

The declaration wants to kick big polluters out of climate change talks and do what is needed to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celcius. 

Project co-ordinator Joseph-Zane Sikulu says most of the big countries in climate change conversations are the big contributors to the problem itself.

Smaller nations suffer the consequences: PM

This was the message delivered by the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, Peter O’Neill, when addressing the United Nations General Assembly on Saturday in New York. 

“Many of the challenges that confront us today are not of our making, but we bear the consequences of actions by other larger and developed countries,” PM O’Neill said to leaders and delegates from UN Member States. 

“We live in a rapidly globalising world, where many events and influences are beyond national borders. 

Bainimarama calls for new emissions target at the UN

In his address Frank Bainimarama urged world leaders to strive for more than just the two degrees’ target set in Paris in 2015.

In November, Mr Bainimarama will take up the presidency COP23 UN climate change conference in Germany.

He told leaders at the General Assembly they should commit to limiting global warming to no more than 1.5 degrees celsius above pre-industrial levels.

"It may be tempting for political leaders to show that they are protecting some national industry or near term economic goal," he said.

Fij praised for taking on COP23 presidency

Germany is hosting the UN climate change meeting this November in Bonn.

At a side event this week at the UN General Assembly in New York, Mr Flasbarth linked the possibilities that can be derived when two different nations work together to build awareness on climate change.

At the same event, the Fiji prime minister Frank Bainimarama reiterated the importance of working closely with Germany.

Tuvalu PM calls for urgency on Paris Agreement

Enele Sopoaga was speaking at a Small Island Developing States event in New York where he and other leaders have gathered for the United Nations General Assembly.

Describing climate change as a security issue, he said there was a need to ensure that implementation of the Paris Agreement was verifiable.

The Agreement, which aims to limit global temperature increase below 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, was designed to protect communities most vulnerable to climate change impacts.