Bainimarama to invite Schwarzenegger and Brown to come to Fiji

Prime Minister and incoming COP23 President, Voreqe Bainimarama will invite former Republican California Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger and current Democrat California Governor, Jerry Brown when he meets them in California next week.

While giving a progress report to the Pacific Small Island Developing States in New York, Bainimarama said that he will go to California to meet Jerry Brown and sign up to the climate action initiative that he is spearheading.

Bainimarama is also in contact with Schwarzenegger, who shares Governor Brown’s commitment.

He says the point is that on both sides of American politics, they have friends who are standing with the Pacific in this struggle.

Bainimarama says he is inviting both Governor Brown and the famous Terminator to come to our Pre‑COP gathering in Fiji in October, where they hope they will join us in a gesture of solidarity with the vulnerable just before COP23 itself in Bonn the following month.

He says he sees this as a Pacific presidency – an inclusive process in which he asked all the small island developing states to stand shoulder‑to‑shoulder with Fiji as they give voice to the concerns of their own countries.

Bainimarama says the stakes for all of us are extremely high. And especially for our friends from Tuvalu, Kiribati and the Marshall Islands, whose very existence is threatened.

The Prime Minister says quite naturally, they are bitterly disappointed by the decision of the Trump Administration to abandon the Paris Agreement.

He says this is not only because of the loss of American leadership on this issue of critical importance to the whole world but because it may also encourage other nations to either back away from the commitments they have made or not implement them with the same resolve.

However he says the American decision is galvanizing opinion around the world in support of decisive climate action.

Bainimarama says other nations and blocs like China, the European Union and India are stepping forward to assume the leadership that Donald Trump has abandoned.

He says within America itself, there is a widespread rebellion against the decision the President has taken.

Bainimarama says dozens of state governors and city mayors are banding together with leaders of the private sector, civil society and ordinary citizens to redouble their efforts to meet this challenge.

He says while the Trump Administration may have abandoned its leadership on climate change, the American people haven’t.