BY JARED KOLI
IN BONN, GERMANY
THE Solomon Islands government is seeking more global cooperation to ensure accelerate more action is done on the climate change front.
Chief negotiator for Solomon Islands in the global discussions at COP23, and High Commissioner to Australia Collin Beck, said as Fiji took the Presidency of COP23, Solomon Islands also take global responsibility.
HE Beck said it is important to increase that ambition of the Paris Agreement
He said the future, and the uncertainty that people face at the moment is at stake, and the Paris Agreement is supposed to be an agreement that is guarantee their future security.
“At the moment, global temperature keeps rising to the point where it already reached 1.1 degree Celsius, so its impact resulted in category 5 hurricanes occurring around the world. This is just a beginning of more to come, unless we do more to reduce greenhouse gasses,” he said.
Tourism, fisheries which are affected by ocean acidification, especially on corals must be protected. HE Beck said livelihood of people is losing.
“So much is at stake for our people, and the ambition of the Paris Agreement is low, number of delegation are following specific areas of the Paris Agreement in trying to ensure that every countries of the world do fare share. We are at front line of climate change, we must do fare share.
“We have countries following technology, finance, capacity building, adaptation, mitigation, global stock take and different areas. As we are trying to reduce emissions, we will continue to adapt.
“One of the things that we are seeking here is more global cooperation to ensure more action is done on climate change front. Action is slowly coming. The Green Climate Fund (GCF) which we receive from Tina Hydro is part of mechanism of Paris Agreement,” says the Chief Negotiator.
Speaking to local journalists covering COP23, HE Beck adds that it is important to increase the ambition of the Paris Agreement, and with Fiji’s Talanoa facilitating dialogue, will assist in trying to put pacific views in the 1.5 degrees partway.
A special assessment report from Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will also be reported, which shows the current status of each party.
“This is an assessment of where we are, in terms of 1.5 degrees Celsius partway, the situation of how much people are doing, aggregates how much it will cost and third is how we will translate, close this gap where need to put in on 1.5 degrees, because at the moment we are heading to three degrees.
“This means we are will be losing our islands, especially low lying islands, with food security, water security are also becoming an issue. All this global warming could shift into a warm war which will bring us to fight over land, over water as people move from one customary land and move to another.
“These are the things we are trying to protect,” he said.
One of the beauties of this Paris Agreement is that it has opportunities. HE Beck said there is enough finance, enough technology, enough capacity for climate action.
He said the challenge now is to ensure to live up to the spirit of Paris Agreement.
Solomon Islands is not only contribute on discussion at this COP, but is also leading certain discussion on least developed countries – coordinating global stock take. The country is taking a lot of leadership in terms of ensuring everyone do a fair share.
Solomon Islands delegation to COP23 comprise of H.E Beck, Permanent Secretary of the Environment and Climate Change Ministry, Dr Melchior Mataki, his Under Secretary, Chanel Iroi, Director Climate Change (Ag) Hudson Kauhiona and five more government officials which include Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation Officers.
Negotiators have until Tuesday to finish their work and capture the progress made thus far in this session. Heads of state and ministers arriving in Bonn Wednesday, and will have to create conditions for rapid progress next year in the rulebook negotiations, as well as accelerating urgent action on the ground in the coming months and years.
