Litia Vulaidausiga
Up to 30 per cent of Fiji’s exclusive economic zone will be dedicated to marine protected areas, under the new Climate Change Bill.
This was confirmed by Minister responsible for Climate Change, Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum at the Asia-Pacific Judicial Conference on Environmental and Climate Change Adjudication in Nadi.
“The Bill will also help enhance and incentivize environmental protection with the establishment of a framework to progress emissions reductions projects, under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement,” the A-G said.
Accordingly, the Bill will establish a national carbon project registry.
As climate change impacts intensify across the region and court cases build, the conference was aimed at addressing climate litigation, sustainable development law and necessary policies on judicial training and capacity building.
“Even though we as judicial officers deal with matters that come before the courts and are not involved in enacting legislation or making policies, we must not lose foresight of the fact that we play an important role in protecting the rights of all individuals to have a safe and healthy environment, which of course would be subject to certain limitations such as national security, economic policy and availability of resources,” said Acting Chief Justice, Kamal Kumar.
This was the first occasion for Fiji to host the conference, organised in partnership with the Asian Development Bank, United Nations Environment, Asian Judges Network on Environment and Global Judicial Institute on the Environment.