‘We are not prepared to watch our reefs die, our fish stocks leave, and our communities be lost to the rising seas’.
This message was relayed by Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama at the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy Leaders Lunch along the margins of the second UN Ocean Conference in Lisbon, Portugal yesterday.
Bainimarama says we are prepared to act with the faith that we can change the tide.
He adds we are prepared to restore the balance that has allowed life above and below water in our islands to thrive for millennia.
Bainimarama adds we all know that our ocean is terribly under-valued and its most important services are discounted by our outdated measures of national economies and in order to implement the commitments we all know are necessary, we have to scale up ocean-based finance.
U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry says it was important for all nations to discipline and align themselves to the language of protecting our ocean with greater ambition.
