Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama says when COP26 starts tomorrow, the existence of Pacific nations will not be up for negotiation.
Bainimarama says this is Fiji's first overseas delegation in nearly two years, and they have made this journey because this COP bears importance for every Fijian for generations to come.
The Prime Minister says the world's action or inaction in Glasgow will determine whether nations limit the terrible impacts of climate change or unleash catastrophe on the planet.
He adds as we know, it is carbon emissions - spewed into the atmosphere over decades - that are causing the world to heat up.
Bainimarama says these utterly reckless levels of emissions, mainly from the world's largest and wealthiest economies, have severely disrupted the climate - including here in Fiji.
Bainimarama further says Cyclone Winston, which struck us in 2016, was one such climate-driven superstorm and cyclones Gita, Josie, Keni, Sarai, Tino, Harold, Yasa, Ana and Bina which followed have inflicted a combined toll of billions on our economy.
The Prime Minister highlighted that the rising seas have forced us to relocate six communities in Fiji, and we have over 40 more that must be moved.
He says and whether it is drenching rains, long periods of drought, or the loss of our reefs, we in Fiji don't just see the worst of climate change, we live it.
Bainimarama also says beyond 1.5 degrees of warming, sea-level rise will accelerate to the point that entire island nations will become uninhabitable, particularly low-lying nations like Kiribati, Tuvalu, and the Marshall Islands here in the Pacific.
He says Fiji has never meekly accepted this fate for ourselves or our low-lying neighbours.
Naveel
