Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama has highlighted that the Commonwealth is a group of nations with strong connections with a great deal of trust and together they can and must tell the world of the reality of the challenges and inspire accelerating climate action.
While speaking at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in London on Climate Change and the Commonwealth accelerating action, Bainimarama adds that for the Commonwealth, there is no greater common challenge countries face than to build greater resilience as our future security and prosperity depend on it.
He highlighted that in the event of TC Winston, 44 people were killed, thousands were made homeless and the economic consequences were dire.
He adds that 26 months later, following TC Josie and TC Keni Fiji is again mourning the loss of at least eight of our loved ones and are again counting the cost of the physical consequences of climate change.
Bainimarama says the increasingly regular appearance of these storms undermines Fiji’s ability to develop as an economy and as a society.
The Prime Minister says some of our Caribbean friends have recently experienced, a direct hit from one of these events that can wipe out entire economies and set back development for decades.
Bainimarama then urged the Commonwealth leaders present join him as COP23 President in using all of their power as political leaders to tackle this crisis head-on and to raise their ambition for climate action for the sake of their own generation and the generations to come.
