COP 22

Speaking at the United Nations High Level Segment of this year's 22nd session of the Conference of the Parties (COP22) in Marrakesh, Morocco, President Waqa said the international community entered 2016 riding high on the accomplishments of last year.

He described the Paris Agreement adopted late last year as a diplomatic triumph.

“Momentum continued to build this year as we rapidly approached the double threshold for its entry into force, and has culminated with today’s opening of the CMA – a pace that exceeded all expectations.”

RNZ reports they are meeting at the COP 22 meeting in Morocco.

The Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) said the chant of "1.5 to stay alive" has been given wider recognition within the Paris Agreement, which was produced at last year's COP meeting.

SPREP said that by 2018, a special report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and the related global greenhouse gas emissions will be released, giving further weight to the chants of "1.5 to stay alive".