Subscribe free to our newsletters via your
. 24/7 Space News .




WATER WORLD
Pacific summit aims to renew global climate efforts
by Staff Writers
Majuro (AFP) Marshall Islands (AFP) Sept 01, 2013


Some of the world's smallest nations will use a Pacific summit this week to push the globe's biggest polluters to finally act on climate change, an issue that threatens their very existence.

Host nation the Marshall Islands wants the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF), which opens in the capital Majuro on Tuesday, to kickstart stalled international efforts to tackle global warming and rising seas.

"We want this to be the Pacific Islands Forum where the region says 'enough's enough'," said Marshall Islands Minister Assisting the President Tony deBrum.

"The Pacific Rim is the source of more than 60 percent of the world's emissions and rising, so this is the key battlefield in the war against climate change. It's time for us to unleash a new wave of climate leadership."

The 15-nation PIF consists mainly of small island states, along with resource-rich Papua New Guinea and regional powers Australia and New Zealand.

It includes the atoll nations of Tuvalu, Kiribati and the Marshalls, where most islands are less than a metre (three feet) above sea level and leaders say climate change is an immediate threat to their people, not an abstract scientific debate.

"Recently waves inundated (our international) airport (and we see) accelerated erosion in most parts of the island," Marshall Islands Foreign Minister Phillip Muller said, adding that changing conditions meant parts of the country were still in the grip of a record-breaking drought.

Some island nations, such as Kiribati, are already talking about the need to migrate to escape rising seas but Muller said the Marshall Islands' population of 55,000 did not want to become climate change refugees.

"We're hoping that we won't have to relocate. That's a choice that we don't want to make," he said.

"We want to work as hard as we can to see if there's a possibility of having our islands continue to exist, that's why we're calling for urgent action from our friends around the world."

Muller said the PIF nations intend to agree on a 'Majuro Declaration' at the summit, which involves taking concrete action on climate change.

The plan is to then present the declaration to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon at the General Assembly meeting in New York at the end of September, "to reenergize the international community and make them aware that there are countries that may not be in existence much longer".

While climate change is the central theme of the four-day summit, a raft of other issues will be discussed by the island leaders and dialogue partners attending the event, including diplomats from the United States, China, the European Union, India and Russia.

These include sustainable development, increasing islanders' control of the $4.0 billion a year tuna industry and protecting marine life in the vast ocean territories belonging to PIF members through measures such as shark protection.

The fate of Fiji, which was expelled from the PIF in 2009 after its military regime reneged on a pledge to hold elections, is also likely to be discussed, although readmission is unlikely before a vote scheduled for September next year.

.


Related Links
Water News - Science, Technology and Politics






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle








WATER WORLD
Tahiti: A very hot biodiversity hot spot in the Pacific
London, UK (SPX) Aug 13, 2013
A collaborative biological survey that focused on the insects of French Polynesia has resulted in the discovery of over 100 tiny predatory beetle species in Tahiti, 28 of these species newly described in the open-access journal ZooKeys. The predatory beetles range in size from 3-8 mm long, and have evolutionarily lost their flight wings, making them homebodies living in small patches of mo ... read more


WATER WORLD
NASA Prepares for First Virginia Coast Launch to Moon

NASA Selects Launch Services Contract for OSIRIS-REx Mission

Environmental Controls Move Beyond Earth

Bad night's sleep? The moon could be to blame

WATER WORLD
ASA Mars Rover Views Eclipse of the Sun by Phobos

International Space Agencies Outline Steps to Take Humans to Mars

Snapping Pictures of the Martian Moons

Mars Rover Opportunity Working at Edge of 'Solander'

WATER WORLD
NASA awards nearly $1.5B in support contracts

NSBRI and NASA Reduce Space Radiation Risks by Soliciting for Center of Space Radiation Research

Next Generation of Explorers Takes the Stage

Has Voyager 1 Left The Solar System?

WATER WORLD
China launches three experimental satellites

Medical quarantine over for Shenzhou-10 astronauts

China's astronauts ready for longer missions

Chinese probe reaches record height in space travel

WATER WORLD
Cosmonauts Complete Spacewalk, Unfold Russian Flag in Space

Italian astronaut recounts spacewalk drowning terror

ISS Boosting Biological Research in Orbit

Japanese Cargo Craft Captured, Berthed to ISS

WATER WORLD
Arianespace Launches EUTELSAT 25B/Es'hail 1 and GSAT 7

NASA Explores New Uses for Historic Launch Structures

Telemetry data confirms launch of South Korean satellite

ISRO pins hopes on GSLV-D5

WATER WORLD
Waking up to a new year

Study: Planets might be 'born free' without a parent star

Distant planet sets speed record by orbiting its star every 8.5 hours

Kepler planet hunter spacecraft is beyond repair: NASA

WATER WORLD
Creating a Secure, Private Internet and Cloud at the Tactical Edge

Sticking power of plant polyphenols used in new coatings

First Report of Real-Time Manipulation and Control of Nuclear Spin Noise

Lab-made complexes are "sun sponges"




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement