Fijian Envoy calls for more Climate Action at Global Forum

Given Fiji’s strong leadership in championing the climate change mitigation, Fiji continues to work with the international communities to accelerate climate ambition and calls on the nations to seriously look at scaling up their national determined contributions (NDC).

This was highlighted by Fiji’s Ambassador in Brussels and Permanent Representative to the European Union, Mr Deo Saran, while speaking at a global forum on climate and environment jointly organised by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Institute for Environmental Assessment (IEA).

Reflecting on the outcomes of COP23 and COP24, Ambassador Saran spoke on the alliance forged between the two Presidencies of the two COPs (Fiji and Poland) in calling for more action.

“We were also pleased that the final decision at COP24 expressed appreciation of the Fijian and Pacific tradition of the Talanoa and “invites parties to consider the outcome, inputs and outputs of the Talanoa Dialogue”.

“The chief output, of course, was the joint Talanoa Call for Action of the Fijian and Polish Presidents. From what some might say is an unlikely alliance, came a very clear call for action from parties and non-party stakeholders.”

Ambassador Saran reminded the international community on the joint statement supported by all parties following the COP conference in 2018 that highlighted that the “world is off the track from the warming goals of the Paris Agreement”.

He added that the same statement noted the benefits of holding global warming to just 1.5 degrees as highlighted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and their conclusion that global emissions need to be halved by 2030 to be on track for that goal.

Ambassador Saran said that Fiji acknowledged the progress made so far in terms of raising climate ambition. In saying this, he made several recommendations to make climate action at the top of the political agenda.

“We should recognise the substantial progress that has been made to ensure that nationally determined contributions (NDC) guidelines are mandatory for all parties from their second round of NDCs.

“Our national capacity has exemplified with bold decisions that we are serious about achieving the temperature goal. This is reflected as Marshall Islands and Fiji have become the first two Pacific island nations to launch 2050 strategies for net zero emission economies and to commit to strengthened NDCs. If we can do it, then others should,” Ambassador Saran said