Kiribati President express interest in joining G77

NATADOLA, Fiji --- Kiribati has expressed its desire to take up membership of the G77 to strengthen its position on the global stage.

This was raised by the leader of the Pacific Island nation, President Anote Tong, when he addressed the G77 High-Level Panel meeting at Natadola this morning.

“Thank you Mr Chairman for inviting me because as you know, Kiribati is not a member of the G77. However I have spoken to the G77 Executive Secretariat and before we leave this meeting you will receive our letter requesting membership of the G77", President Tong told Fijian Prime Minister and Chair of the G77, Voreqe Bainimarama.

Highlighting the need for Pacific Island nations to play their full part in international issues, including those relating to sustainable development, President Tong said we must bring balance when addressing development.

“We hope we can thereby have the opportunity to give wider voice to our needs and concerns, particularly in terms of South-South cooperation”, President Tong said.

“We believe that it’s important when we look at development, we must always try to achieve a sense of balance between economic growth, social developments and the environment, so that no sector of the community is marginalised. We must always take into consideration environment concerns”.
Fiji’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Peter Thomson, said as a member of the Pacific Small Islands Developing States (PSIDS), Kiribati would be a most welcome part of the G77 membership.

He said, “The G77 is the most appropriate international grouping for countries such as Fiji, Kiribati and other PSIDS to advance the development of their economic agendas in the global context”.

Meanwhile, strengthening South-South cooperation between members of the G77 and China group was the key focus of discussions by the members of the G77 High-level Panel meet.
Held behind closed doors, Tuesday’s session saw leaders expressing their desire to work together towards pushing the needs and challenges of developing countries.

Bolivia’s President Evo Morales highlighted the need to adopt economic models that put the plight of ordinary citizens at the forefront.

President Morales said that basic services such as water, power, and telecommunication are basic human rights. He said Bolivia wanted to work in solidarity with the South.
His statements were echoed by his Kiribati counterpart, President Anote Tong who also urged for a balance in future developments including environmental concerns.

President Tong also highlighted the need to address over-exploitation of tuna reserves in Pacific waters and solidarity amongst Pacific Islands Small Developing States (PSIDS) to ensure they gain higher economic returns from tuna sales.

Other panel members emphasized the need for a stronger stand on global challenges that affected them directly.

Vanuatu Prime Minister Moana Kalosil spoke on the inequities of climate change. His Solomon Islands counterpart Gordon Darcy Lilo said participants should use the meeting to make the South-South Cooperation a force in the economic development of the South.

 http://www.islandsbusiness.com/news/fiji/1105/kiribati-president-express-interest-in-joining-g77/

Pacific islands look for model to combat changes due to global warming

With islands and atolls scattered across the ocean, the small Pacific island states are among those most exposed to the effects of global warming: increasing acidity and rising sea level, more frequent natural disasters and damage to coral reefs. These micro-states, home to about 10 million people, are already paying for the environmental irresponsibility of the great powers.

"Pacific islands are the victims of industrial countries unable to control their carbon dioxide emissions. The truth of the matter is that we have no option but to accept this and adapt," says Dr Jimmie Rodgers, the head of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), a regional development organisation. At the initiative of France's Research on Development Institute (IRD) and New Caledonia University, 30 or so scientists from the Pacific basin spent a week at the end of April discussing the design of a sustainable development model suited to local conditions – in particular, pressure from the climate on ways of life that reach back several millennia.
In a study published by the journal Nature Climate Change, the SPC and IRD draw attention to the considerable impact of global warming on food security on these islands. Fish stocks, the main source of protein for islanders and the basis for development, will be particularly affected. Currently about 1m tonnes of tuna and tuna-like fishes are caught every year in the region.

For the Kiribati group of islands, fishing accounts for 40% of GDP, whereas on the Marshall Islands fisheries and fish processing represent a quarter of overall revenue. "The rising temperature of surface waters, which is greater in the western part of the ocean basin, will encourage tuna to migrate east towards Polynesia," says Johann Bell, principal fisheries scientist at SPC and one of the authors of the study.

Melanesian countries, such as Papua New Guinea or the Solomon Islands, will suffer most. "PNG has a large canning industry, but in a few decades it will have to import tuna to keep it running," Bell adds. "Fortunately it can count on favourable international agreements to buy [fish] wherever it likes, with low customs duty." But the disappearance of the tuna shoals could mean major financial losses for smaller economies such as Tuvalu or Kiribati.

The effects for coastal fisheries are likely to be even more dramatic, due to damage to the coral reefs. The population density of live reefs is expected to drop from 40% at present, for the Pacific as a whole, to 10% or 20% by 2050, the scientists explain. The decrease in the fish stocks in the lagoons coincides with high population growth, particularly in Melanesia.

With an increase in rainfall, the SPC is advocating the development of fish farms and freshwater fisheries. On Fiji, Vanuatu and Samoa, farms have recently started raising Nile tilapia, an alien species. To reduce pressure on the reefs and allow coastal residents to catch tuna, there are also plans to build floating pontoons to attract the fish.

On land, life must adapt to the changing conditions too. On Fiji, the Centre for Pacific Crops and Trees has set up a department to focus on adapting staple crops.

"Climate change brings new constraints for crops, which are subject to unpredictable ecological pressures such as drought, higher salt concentrations, extreme temperatures and erosion," a representative explains. Thousands of varieties of manioc, taro, sweet potato and banana have been screened in order to offer farmers new, more robust varieties. "We are promoting these seeds," says Henry Puna, prime minister of the Cook Islands (population 12,200), which have been hard-hit by coastal erosion.

But funds for adaptation programmes are in very short supply. International funding mechanisms are designed for medium-sized or large countries. Most of the Pacific island states are too small to qualify. "We cannot make ourselves heard in the international arena. It is vital for us to act as a region," Puna asserts. He is consequently delighted that climate change is the central theme of this year's summit meeting of the Pacific Islands Forum on the Marshall Islands in September.

 http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/may/07/pacific-islands-global-warming-climate

Climate Change Creates Hard Life For Gardening

Farmers on the Weather Coast of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. Credit: Kastom Gaden Association (KGA)

Life is difficult enough for communities on the remote southern Weather Coast of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands.  Sustaining a livelihood from the land is a daily struggle on the steep coastal mountain slopes that plunge to the sea, made worse by the absence of adequate roads, transport and government services. And now, climate change is taking its toll on the already precarious food situation here.
“From mid-March to June it is always raining and whatever crops we grow will not go to harvest,” Alice, a member of a farming family on the Weather Coast, told IPS, referring to the period locals here call “time hungry”.

During these months, most meals consist of rice and one or two other items procured from the shops in the city of Honiara, the capital of this nation comprising more than 900 islands located northeast of Australia and east of Papua New Guinea.

Stretching for 160 kilometres, this island, the largest in the Solomon Islands archipelago, has a widely dispersed population. Located on the northern coast and home to 64,600 people, Honiara is separated by high mountains from isolated villages on the southern coast, where the total population is more than 19,000.
The climate here is hot and humid all year round and people are vulnerable to cyclones, gale force winds and flooding during the wet season, as well as earthquakes and landslides due to the country’s proximity to the highly seismic Pacific Rim of Fire.

Scientists are now predicting the weather extremes that batter this rugged coast will only get worse as the nation faces the full force of climate change.
The sea level near the Solomon Islands has been rising by eight millimetres per year compared to the global average of 2.8 to 3.6 mm, according to the Pacific Climate Change Science Programme.  During the first half of this century, average annual and extreme rainfall is predicted to increase, along with the intensity of cyclones.

Climate change is the greatest challenge to sustainable development in this South Pacific nation, imperilling the food security of 85 percent of the population who depend on subsistence agriculture. In terms of development, the Solomon Islands is ranked 142 out of 187 countries by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and has the second lowest average per capita income in the Pacific region, while 23 percent of the population lives below the poverty line.

IMPACT OF CLIMATE CHANGE IN SOLOMON ISLANDS GAINING MOMENTUM

Solomon Islanders have been encouraged to speak out on the effects of Climate Change that they experience, to contribute to the many global efforts in addressing climate change.

Attorney Takaaki Kagohashi, Executive Director of the Japan Environmental Federation (JELF) said that Solomon Islanders including villagers, must voice their negative experience with climate change effects. 
He said that the effects of climate change are very real and should not be treated as normal. 

http://www.gcca.eu/national-programmes/pacific/the-solomon-islands-climate-assistance-programme

‘There are reported incidents where islanders have been relocated because their islands are sinking, food gardens affected because of soil salinity, irregular weather patterns, these and many more evidences are high priority concerns,’ said the JELF Director. 


It is very unfair that innocent islanders including Solomon Islanders are living evidential subjects of climate change brought about by developed countries and big corporations who emit large amounts of Greenhouse gases. 


He said his organization is committed to assist Solomon islanders speak out to have their situation recognized by the big emitting countries and corporations.

Atty Kagohashi said by voicing out their concerns, developed countries and big corporations must make meaningful and real commitments to address the effects of Climate Change. 


Meanwhile local NGO, the Network of the Indigenous Peoples-Solomons (NIPS) said that carbon offset and other mechanisms strategized to address global warming are insufficient without recognizing and respecting the rights of Indigenous peoples to equally share the world we are living in with the developed countries and big multinational corporations who emit large amounts of greenhouse gases. 


NIPS echoed scientific studies and practical experiences have proven that Indigenous Peoples as a universal group are the most directly and profoundly affected by climate change throughout the world. 


NIPS supported JELF’s position for the Indigenous Solomon Islands to speak out and added its call for the developed countries and big corporations to stop the destruction of nature, Mother Earth for indigenous peoples, and therefore demand the paralyzation of extractive mega-projects on indigenous lands and fragile ecosystems that accentuate the impacts of climate change.