BY SAMIE WAIKORI
Prime Minister of Fiji, Sitiveni Rabuka has said the call to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius; as one of the goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement, is not just a target but a lifeline.
The leader made the call when Pacific Island Leaders endorsed the Ocean of Peace Declaration during the Pacific Island Forum Leaders meeting that concluded yesterday in Honiara.
Rabuka described climate change as an “existential threat”, while Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele, who is also the current chair of PIF and Secretary General of PIF Baron Waqa described climate change as the “single greatest threat in the region”.
Prime Minister Rabuka reaffirmed his call that the appeal to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius is not just a target—it is a lifeline.
“For us, this is neither about politics, nor a mere scientific debate. It is a matter of survival, and our survival is not negotiable.
“As Leaders, we have stood long at the forefront of the fight for environmental justice, a fight that has become all the more urgent in the face of rising seas and increasingly severe climatic events.
“Yet, despite our collective efforts, the lack of meaningful action by the world’s highest emitters continues to put our very existence at risk.
“This is not merely a failure of leadership—it is a profound injustice that we will not tolerate. The era of empty promises and half measures are behind us,” he said.
Rabuka echoed that the Pacific demands honest commitments to real, concrete action that confronts the climate crisis with the urgency and determination it requires.
“In this, we need more than accessibility to climate financing. We need longer term funding that is meaningful to the reality of our island situations, many of whom have gone past mitigation,” he said.
On that note, the leader emphasized the crucial need for PIF to put in place rules or guidelines for order, justice and peace in the region and the world.
And “ours is to embrace and promote the multilateral system that ensures their applicability and continuity, without which indecency and chaos will rule.
“Emerging trends and patterns of diluting this global rule-based order is of utmost concern for small states like us, thus the need for unity and solidarity on our part,” he said.
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