During his address at the Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition’s (CPLC) High-Level Assembly, Fijian Attorney-General and Minister Responsible for Climate Change, Hon. Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, urged priority be given to climate change adaptation for small states as opposed to the adoption of carbon pricing, given their negligible carbon footprints.
The CPLC Assembly took place as part of the Spring Meetings of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund. The CPLC was founded in December 2015 and includes more than 200 partners, including 27 governments and 132 companies. The Coalition is designed to bring together leaders from across Government, the private sector and civil society to share experiences working with carbon pricing and to expand the evidence base for the most effective carbon pricing systems and policies.
At the Assembly, Mr. Sayed-Khaiyum said that climate adaptation and access to climate finance would be key parts of Fiji's agenda for its upcoming presidency of the United Nations negotiations on climate change (COP 23).
“The Fijian presidency of COP 23 will work together with all parties involved to drive action on increasing access to climate adaptation finance, and work to change the current permutation of mitigation and adaptation finance. We need to re-look at climate finance architecture and re-evaluate the onerous and often impractical conditions of accessing climate finance,” he said.
Mr. Sayed-Khaiyum assured the Fijian Presidency’s commitment to expedite work on the Rulebook of the Paris Agreement and the 2018 Facilitative Dialogue, and move the Global Climate Action Agenda forward together with all state parties including civil society and the private sector.
“Given the current uncertain dynamics in the climate change political discourse, it is incumbent on the Fijian Presidency to galvanise everyone to ensure the success of the Paris Agreement, which marks an unprecedented political recognition of the risks of climate change,” he said
This year’s CPLC Assembly evaluated global progress on implementing carbon pricing, launched the CPLC Strategy for 2017 and identified new strategic issues for the global community – such as the link between carbon pricing, fiscal policy and climate risk.
Following the CPLC Assembly, Mr. Sayed-Khaiyum met with the French Minister of the Environment, Energy and Marine Affairs, responsible for Climate Relations, Ms Ségolène Royal, who played a leading role in the finalisation of the Paris Agreement as the President of COP 21.