Kiribati President Anote Tong publicly thanked the nation of Fiji in a speech at the Paris climate summit for agreeing to take in his people should the worst come to pass.

"It's so heartening to hear that Fiji has undertaken to accommodate our people of Kiribati in the event that climate change renders our homes uninhabitable," the president said.

Tong said he would continue to repeat this statement to the international community because they needed to hear it.

"Because it's such a noble act from Fiji to help us," Mr Tong said.

Tong said the Pacific region would have appreciated the support of its neighbours Australia and New Zealand.

"Australia and New Zealand continue to worry about their industries.

"We had our arguments in Port Moresby, we would have liked them to come to our assistance, especially at this international forum because we do that for them whenever they ask us to.

"We give them our support and this is perhaps the most critical issue in which we need the support of all of our friends, and even our enemies."

At COP21 the prime minster of Fiji, Voreqe Bainimarama called on industrialised countries to act now and save small island states from disappearing.

"I have another message today - an invitation to those of you who think this is some distant threat to come to the Pacific and witness what I am about the tell you with your own eyes."

"The nightmare scenario is already unfolding. And not only on low-lying coral atolls like the nations I have mentioned but on mountainous volcanic islands such as those in Fiji."

"So we haven't caused this crisis. The blame lies squarely with the industrialised and emerging nations."

"Carbon emissions spewing from their factories. From the energy they burn. The cars they drive. The planes they travel in."

Source

• fijitimes.com
• fijisun.com.fj
• slate.com
• Image: cdn.ipsnews.net

"It is through the actions of civil society and small island nations that the agreement recognises we need to keep a global temperature limit well below 2C, and work towards a limit of 1.5C to protect the most vulnerable states," says Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand Director Julianne Hickey.

Selected as one of only two leaders to represent the 165 member organisations of the Caritas Internationalis confederation, Hickey spoke at an event with other non-governmental organisations on December 7 as part of the conference.

"It's an honour to be invited to speak at this global event. But more importantly, I am concerned that those most affected by climate change in Oceania have a strong voice at the discussions in Paris. World leaders need to hear about the real life impact of climate change as they make decisions," Hickey said.

She says the agreement sends a bold signal to the world - to local and national governments, to businesses, to communities and individuals - that we need to cut greenhouse gas emissions as quickly and efficiently as possible.

"At the moment, it offers hope, though not security, for the most vulnerable."

Caritas is now calling on the international community, especially the affluent and those most able, to redouble their efforts to protect our common home.

"We now need a concrete, robust plan to significantly cut our greenhouse gas emissions, and scale up our own financial assistance to help more vulnerable nations, especially in the Pacific," Hickey says.

• There is a need to 'step up' and look at current carbon emission reduction targets. While it is a small contributor, but it can be much better.
• An 11% reduction on 1990 levels is not good enough.
• It shouldn't be 'bought' through overseas carbon credits.
• Caritas welcomes the commitment to help people in the Pacific move to renewable energy.
• However, there is an urgent need to increase climate change adaptation funding and ensure it reaches those most in need.
• Although it is regrettable that human rights and the rights of indigenous people are not referenced in this agreement, we intend to hold governments to account.

New Zealand's prime minister John Key told RNZ's Morning Report that significant steps on emission reduction would not involve cutting back on the mining of oil, gas and coal.

"Not in terms of the production side of the house, if you like ... I can't exactly tell you off the top of my head how many barrels of oil we produce a day but it would be what Saudi Arabia, Iraq and those other countries, Iran, produce in a nano-second. It's just not large."

Listen to John Key on Morning Report

Key said New Zealand was just being consistent with what other countries were doing.

"The world's going to continue to consume some of these products and we can't stop that."

"The question is, can we get them to transition more rapidly to other forms of renewable energy? The answer is yes."

"But one of the fastest ways to do that is to stop the subsidisation of the consumption of fossil fuels and that's really what the fossil fuel subsidy reform's about."

"New Zealand could, of course, just stop producing oil and gas and coal but realistically if we did that I don't believe it would stop it being consumed. I think the rest of the world would just fill the very small gap we would leave."

Source

• caritas.org.nz
• caritas media statement
• radionz.co.nz
• Image: aosis.org

Many others — about 10,000 — tried to migrate, but could not. Others became "internal migrants," placing strains on the already overpopulated capitals of Funafuti, Tuvalu, and South Tarawa, Kiribati.

The survey covered 6,852 individuals from 852 households in Kiribati, Nauru and Tuvalu.

While some believe that the habitability of their country is in question, and that they need to move, many more believed they had a right to stay in their homes, said Koko Warner of the Institute for Environment and Human Security at United Nations University, which helped lead the study.

That insistence has contributed to a raging debate over whether the Paris climate accord should include provisions for "loss and damage" resulting from climate change. .

New evidence is now suggests that these small islands will be more resilient to sea-level rise than we thought.

That is not to say that these nations won't face significant environmental challenges.

Built of sand and shingle and lying just 1-3m above the current sea level, coral reef islands in the central Pacific and Indian Oceans are considered among the most vulnerable places on Earth.

The new findings suggest that, rather than being passive lumps of rock that will be swamped by rising seas and eroded by storms, the islands are dynamic structures that can move and even grow in response to changing seas.

On the face of it, this is potentially good news for Pacific communities.

The islands they call home may be less vulnerable than is commonly thought.

But the findings also suggest that although the islands may not be swamped by rising seas, they are likely to change in size and shift their position on the surface of reefs.

The rate of these changes may also increase as sea level rises.

This raises questions for their ongoing habitation. How will physical changes to the islands affect drinking water supplies, and how will communities need to adapt their farming practices?

Questions about island change must be addressed urgently in order to inform decision making and secure the future of Pacific nations.

Source

• nytimes.com
• theconversation.com
• Image: i.telegraph.co.uk

Extinction is hardly less serious than genocide, yet its quarry have no legal basis to relocate.

Pasifika nations have little to no voice in international energy policy, and exert, at most, limited influence over international law.

At COP21 these inequities have been at the fore, as the United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS), in partnership with the U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), presented a sweeping survey among the populations of Kiribati, Nauru, and Tuvalu, alongside much-needed policy recommendations for the international community.

The survey—launched by UNESCAP but executed largely by locals—canvassed 852 households (6,852 people) in these three countries.

It's the first comprehensive look at the migration patterns and climate anxieties of these islanders.

As Tuvalu's Prime Minister Enele Sosene Sopoaga put it in a prepared statement: "The results from this unprecedented survey show us empirically what we already know.

"Pacific islanders are facing the brunt of climate change impacts and are increasingly finding themselves with fewer options."

What can the rest of us do? Some straightforward stuff with job training, risk-management tools (simple facilities for storing water, for example), and, perhaps most crucially, international law.

To ease migration, the U.N. also advocates training island citizens as nurses, schoolteachers, and police.

Such training would help strengthen visa applications for emigration to better-elevated countries, and help émigrés find good work once they get there.

Source

• psmag.com
• Image: psmag.com

The papal shoes - black Oxfords - joined thousands of other sneakers, slippers and pumps in a symbolic march at the Place de la Republique.

The art installation was a substitute for a protest Global Climate Action march in the city.

The march was called off after the November 13 terrorist attacks in Paris.

Above the papal shoes was a laminated sign with Francis's signature and the words "Laudato Si'".

Shoes from other religious leaders were beside the Pope's.

Continue reading

She is one of only two leaders to represent the 165 member organisations of the Caritas Internationalis confederation and will speak at an event with other non-governmental organisations taking place on December 7 as part of the conference.

Mrs Hickey will focus on climate finance in Oceania and the fact it is not addressing real need and must focus more on climate adaptation for the most vulnerable.

"It's an honour to be invited to speak at this global event.

"More importantly, I am concerned that those most affected by climate change in Oceania have a strong voice at the discussions in Paris.

"World leaders need to hear about the real life impact of climate change as they make decisions," Mrs Hickey says.

"For too long the voices of the most vulnerable, who also happen to be those most affected by rising sea levels and extreme weather events, have been ignored or unheard.

"We want to help change that. It is vital that we get a strong commitment from global leaders to take urgent action on climate change.

"The time for timidity is over, it is a time for courage. The time for action is now."

Speakers at the event will present lessons learnt and assess how far the Paris Agreement will reflect climate justice principles.

Other NGOs represented will include: CIDSE (an international Catholic development alliance) and Friends of the Earth International.

Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand is the New Zealand Catholic Bishops' agency for justice, peace and development, and incorporates Mahitahi - Catholic Overseas Volunteers.

Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand is a member of Caritas Internationalis, a confederation of 165 Catholic aid, development and social justice agencies active in over 200 countries and territories

Source

• Supplied
• Image: caritas.org.nz

Priests and ministers from Catholic, Anglican, Presbyterian, Methodist and other churches are uniting behind the call for a global deal to reduce carbon emissions, in anticipation of the international negotiations taking place in Paris from November 30th.

"As Christians, we are called to be stewards of the earth, and climate change threatens God's creation," said Reverend Dr Carolyn Kelly, a Presbyterian chaplain at The University of Auckland. Continue reading

Ribat was taking part in an emotionally charged press conference in Rome on Monday.

Catholic leaders representing every continent on earth made an urgent appeal to the global negotiators and political officials who will gather in Paris in December for the United Nation's 21st climate summit - COP21.

Their message: After two decades of abysmal failure, don't screw up this time.

"What we are asking for is a fair, legally binding and truly transformational agreement by all the nations on earth."

Speaking for Oceania Ribat said, "God gave us the same dignity as all other countries and continents in the world. But we belong to those groups most affected by climate change and sea-level rise."

He explained that flooding and drought in some island nations is already reducing the ability to grow crops and forcing natives to flee.

This is resulting in a little publicised immigration crisis — far from the one occurring in Europe.

He noted, many people however are reluctant to abandon their sinking homelands, fearful of what awaits them as eco-refugees — discrimination, xenophobia and cultural isolation.

"This is my urgent call," Ribat said to those who will negotiate in Paris: "Guarantee the future of Oceania. Change society to a low-carbon lifestyle."

The heads of six continental bishops' conferences, along with leaders of national conferences in the United States and Canada and of the Catholic patriarchs of the Orient, made the collective call to the negotiating parties who are set to arrive Nov. 30 in Paris for the annual United Nations climate change conference, formally known as the 21st Conference of the Parties, COP 21.

Each of the five speakers cited Pope Francis' landmark encyclical on climate change and the environment — Laudato Si, On Care for Our Common Home — as inspiration for their unprecedented call to action.

Read the Press release from the Bishops.

Source

• pulitzercenter.org
• ncronline
• Image: ncronline