Climate Change

The amendment is expected to enter into force after three quarters of the Parties to the Protocol submit their instruments of acceptance to the Depositary.

The United Nations is encouraging governments to speed up their ratification of the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, the international emissions reduction treaty. Ratification is necessary to provide valuable momentum for global climate action for the years leading up to 2020.

The meeting is an attempt by both Parties to explore options on key negotiating positions of small and vulnerable nations at the frontline of climate change.

The meeting on the margins of the COP21 conference in Le Bourget was ‘useful’ according to President Tong.

The three Pacific Leaders invited to the talk, Kiribati, Marshall Islands and Papua New Guinea – put to President Obama the need for ‘loss and damage’ and the global temperature rise to below 1.5 degrees’ in the proposed Paris Agreement.

Known as Intended Nationally Determined Contribution, INDC for short, these plans outline among things carbon emission reduction targets each country is committed to. Two island nations, Tuvalu and Palau submitted their INDCs the last 48 hours, on the eve of the opening of the final rounds of climate change negotiations in Paris.

Called the France Oceania Summit, most leaders of the Pacific attended including the founder and current chair of the PIDF, Prime Minister of Fiji, Josaia Voreqe Bainimarama.

Also in attendance was the new Secretary General of the PIDF Francois Martel and his climate adviser Dr Mahendra Kumar. 

Pacific island challenges are made harder with the impacts of climate change. The island region which consists of 30,000 islands with three of the five lowest countries on earth is one of the most vulnerable regions on earth to the impacts of climate change.

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said this in a report released ahead of the 21st United Nations climate change conference, known as COP21.

According to the agency, of the 530 million children in the flood-prone zones, some 300 million live in countries where more than half the population lives in poverty – on less than $3.10 a day. Of those living in high drought severity areas, 50 million are in countries where more than half the population lives in poverty.

The organisation issued the warning to mark Universal Children's Day om Friday.

It says climate change is exacerbating and speeding up already existing challenges in low-lying countries such as Kiribati, Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands.

UNICEF says this threatens to undo development gains made over decades.

 “Science tells us that there is one path for us to be able to have a stable planet and a safe stable economy, and that is to get onto a below 2 degree path – that is fundamental – and policy is actually following science as it should,” said Christiana Figueres, the Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC, speaking to reporters in Bonn, Germany.

Less than two weeks away from the UN climate conference in Paris, widely known as COP21, she announced that 168 countries, covering almost 90 per cent of global emissions, have now submitted their national climate targets, known as INDCs.

At a dinner convened jointly between France and the UK in London last week, a group of representatives from such small island states described the severity of the threat they face. They are understandably pushing hard for all nations to do more to cut emissions and help prevent the worst impacts of climate change.

The threats facing the rest of the world are no less grave. To preserve a climate that can support a healthy, prosperous population, we must limit global warming to no more than 1.5°C or 2°C.