Climate decisions are only as strong as the voices that shape them.
This has been highlighted by Minister for Environment Lynda Tabuya while opening the Pacific Pre-COP31 at Sofitel Resort, where she has stressed that we have to be present to be heard.
The Minister is appealing to COP President and co-chair to join Fiji and the Pacific as they lobby to get the oceans on the climate agenda.
Tabuya stresses that the Pacific must continue to fight to protect Na Moana, the ocean.
She is urging people to tell the leaders plainly what further warming would mean for their communities, and show them where finance is failing, and where it is working.
Australia’s Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen says the leaders must use COP31 to elevate the views and the experiences of the Pacific in the COP processes, which have not been heard strongly enough in the past.
He says no one is more important in that process than the Pacific.
Bowen stresses that the Pacific, which has done so little to cause climate change, and has so much at stake in combating climate change.
The Australian Minister says there are four nations in the world that, on a sober reading of the projections, face the very real risk of being submerged and 3 of them are here in the Pacific.
Bowen says 34 leaders, influential people, presidents of multilateral development banks, will be going to Tuvalu tomorrow to lift the profile of these issues on the world stage.
He says the fact that some of the nations that need climate finance for adaptation the most are those who struggle to get it the hardest and the fact that oceans, which are so important in terms of the potential outcomes, the potential mitigation, but also the impacts, have not featured so strongly in public negotiations in years past.
He says that Fiji is again calling on the world to match ambition with delivery.
Bowen says Australia is a proud member of the Pacific family and shares the region, ocean and future with Pacific countries.
He says the work being done at Pre-COP31 is important as countries seek to build consensus across more than 190 parties ahead of COP31 in Antalya.
Bowen says Australia will leave no stone unturned to ensure the Pacific’s voices are heard and that COP31 delivers meaningful progress.
He says the COP must focus on implementation and acceleration, including delivering on renewable energy and energy efficiency commitments.
Bowen says he is confident COP31 will be remembered as a meeting where the world took a forward step and recognised that multilateralism matters more than ever.
He says it should also be remembered as a COP where a region that has not had its voices heard strongly enough, like the Pacific, has its voices heard by the end of the conference.
Ministers, leaders and negotiators from more that 50 countries are convening in Nadi from today until Friday for Pre-COP31 to discuss key issues and their agenda for COP31.
Hosted by Australia in Fiji and Tuvalu, the Pacific Pre-COP31 discussions will focus on four key pillars including keeping 1.5°C within reach, enhancing access to climate finance, elevating the ocean-climate nexus, and amplifying Pacific voices and leadership.
