Australia told to be Pacific climate voice

December 10, 2009 07:29:09 AM

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The Fiji-based offices of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the Pacific Council of Churches (PCC) have called on Australia to take the climate change agenda of Pacific island states to this week’s Copenhagen summit.

Both organisations said in a joint statement that the people of the Pacific were looking to Canberra in the hope that Australia would work with Pacific island nations to secure a fair and equitable deal out of Copenhagen.

“Australia through Prime Minister Kevin Rudd as Chair of the Pacific Islands Forum, needs to show genuine leadership now and assist in securing for the Pacific region a deal that sees industrial countries ambitiously reducing greenhouse gases and committing to financing adaptation programs for vulnerable countries and communities,” said Kesaia Tabunakawai, the WWF’s South Pacific Program Office representative.

“Climate change in the Pacific is an existential threat. Australia as current Chair of the Pacific Islands Forum must empathize with our fears and anxiety and push for an ambitious climate deal that will safeguard our countries, cultures and ecosystems from sea level rise and climate related catastrophes, said PCC climate change campaigner Peter Emberson.

“The people of the Pacific are hereby pleading with all global leaders to use Copenhagen as an important opportunity to set aside carbon-heavy economic and military security interests and instead, look at the interests of humanity and all life forms on planet earth and to act accordingly,” Emberson said.

Both organizations said the statement represented 10,000 Pacific Islanders calling on their government leaders to secure for them a strong climate deal.

The call follows a petition drive launched four months ago – via postcards, facebook and the Pacific Conference of Churches website – in the lead up to this month’s 15th Conference of Parties climate meeting in Denmark.

In announcing the 10,000 strong petition demand, the PCC and WWF said the onus was now on Pacific Island Countries (PICs) leaders to convince world leaders to commit to a legally binding climate deal which will secure the survival of countries, cultures and all life forms as well as pave the way into a low carbon future.

They said PICs leaders attending the Copenhagen summit were being urged to pressure rich countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 45 percent from their 1990 emission levels.

PICs leaders were also being urged to encourage all countries to keep overall global temperatures well below 1.5 degrees Celsius to safeguard against catastrophic climate change, the statement said.

PCC and WWF called on PICs leaders to “demand for the immediate financing and operationalising of the Adaptation Framework and the Adaptation fund so that vulnerable Pacific countries and communities can access monies to begin drawing up lasting plans and constructing the necessary infrastructure to safeguard against the worst impacts of climate change”.

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