Much of national debt linked to climate crisis – Prof. Prasad

Climate change restricts our development progress and much of our national debt is a climate debt, that is, debt undertaken to rebuild bridges and roads that are washed away by extreme weather events.

This has been highlighted by Acting Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Professor Prasad in his recorded video message for the Climate Justice and Loss and Damage in the Pacific Conference at the University of Sydney.

He says Fiji and indeed the Pacific are deeply disappointed that U.S. President Donald Trump has withdrawn the USA from the Paris Treaty.

Professor Prasad says the Prime Ministers of Fiji, Samoa and PNG have written to the US President to reconsider this decision.

He says Fiji’s Prime Minister has taken the Pacific’s message directly to the White House last week and is urging the US to reconsider this decision.

The Acting Prime Minister says a withdrawal from Paris does not absolve USA of its historical responsibilities as great countries take responsibility for their actions.

He says the climate debt that the US owes Pacific Islanders is held in trust. The Acting Prime Minister also says progress on loss and damage must result in significantly expanded pool of climate finance, as agreed at COP28.

He says specific responses to loss and damage are best shaped and determined at the local level and locally led and driven efforts to define, quantify (if possible) and propose solutions to loss and damage works well when done within a strong national framework.

Professor Prasad says ad-hoc donor support, stop-start approaches to donor support, short term projects, and excessive use of third-party actors is a recipe for disaster.

He says we cannot allow significant amounts of financing available to support national response to loss and damage to be eaten up by third-party implementing entities and funding that is meant for communities experiencing loss and damage must go to those communities.

Professor Prasad says Fiji will work constructively with the Board of the Fund for responding to loss and damage to ensure what the fund delivers, its appetite for risk, its responsiveness, and operability is distinct from other mechanisms. He says we need to be unambiguous in promoting an international understanding that investment decisions taken by rich countries, that economic strategies such as fossil fuel subsidies pose fundamental threats to the enjoyment of human rights of Pacific Islanders.

He says this climate colonialism must end.