HON. PM BAINIMARAMA'S REMARKS AT THE WELCOME COCKTAIL FOR CROWN PRINCE HAAKON MAGNUS OF THE KINGDOM OF NORWAY

08/04/2019


-His Royal Highness Haakon Magnus, Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Norway and your very distinguished delegation;
- Honorable Cabinet Ministers and Members of the Opposition;
- Excellencies;
- Distinguished Guests;
- Ladies & Gentlemen. 

Bula vinaka and a very good evening to you all.

Your Royal Highness, you’ll have to forgive us if there are a few tired faces in the crowd today. Many of us were up quite late last night, watching our national sevens team take a first-place finish at the Hong Kong Sevens –– the fifth time in a row we’ve won the tournament. It seems you’ve brought some luck along with you, so vinaka! 

We are honoured to host you here in Suva tonight in what is the first-ever official visit to Fiji by a member of the Royal House of the Kingdom of Norway. I’m told the temperature had a low of two degrees below zero today in Oslo –– I’ve been through all that during my time in Bonn, so when I offer you a warm welcome on behalf of all Fijians, I mean that quite literally. 

We indeed have very different weather, and from the surface, Fiji and Norway may seem to be polar opposites. But when you look a bit closer, it becomes clear that we share many more similarities than most may think. Both Fiji and Norway are home to unique cultures and languages. We each have a rich history of maritime exploration. We are international promotors of peace –– our Peacekeepers have served alongside each other in Lebanon, Sudan, and the Sinai Peninsula. And on the global stage, we share a passion for protecting the climate, our oceans and our natural environment.

That passion isn’t by coincidence; our nations are faced with a mutual sense of urgency to address climate change, as the consequences of rising seas and heightened temperatures are already being felt by Fijians and Norwegians alike. And while the whole world stands to suffer from a changing climate, the impact afflicting our nations is already proving to be outsized –– warming is accelerating at a particularly alarming pace in Scandinavia, and stronger tropical cyclones have ravaged Fiji in recent years. Our agricultural and fishing sectors are being disrupted, and entire industries are reeling to adapt. But whether it’s the melting glaciers at your latitude or the rising seas at ours, for us, this menacing worldwide threat is even more dire.

That’s why Norway, like Fiji, has led the world as we work to curb climate change. I thank the government of Norway for its ambitious advocacy in this fight, and for its generous financial support of Fiji’s own efforts, including the Ocean Pathway. We both understand that the protection of our oceans absolutely must be a central focus of any climate consideration, and I look forward to working hand-in-hand with our Norwegian brothers and sisters to put even more emphasis on the “Blue Economy” in future international negotiations. 

But not all progress requires broad international consensus. As we look to limit temperature rise, what is perhaps the most affordable and immediate step we can take actually comes from the very source that we’re working to protect: Mother Nature. By harnessing the power of nature, and focusing on green initiatives like the mass planting of trees and mangroves, carbon dioxide that has already been released into the air will be absorbed, limiting the man-made damage to our atmosphere. In fact, if properly funded, these “Natural Climate Solutions” could have the potential to offset about one-third of the emissions necessary to hit our targets by 2030. 

Here again, Your Highness, our commonalities are on full display. Just this year, the Fijian Government undertook an ambitious project to plant four million trees over the next four years. And when it comes to cultivating healthy forests, Norway has a long history of international stewardship. In fact, your own sustainable forestry efforts span far beyond your own borders; from Liberia to Indonesia, Norway has committed hundreds of millions of dollars to halting irresponsible deforestation all around the globe. This type of international cooperation between the highly-developed world and their counterparts in lesser-developed countries is essential to finding success through Natural Climate Solutions. When we do, our well-established target to cap the increase to global temperatures at 1.5 degrees looks to be a goal within reach.

Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests. Wherever our countries fall on the globe, across borders, oceans and hemispheres, all of humanity shares a common future when it comes to climate change. We’re all in the same canoe –– and whether it’s a Fijian drua sailing across the Pacific or a Viking long-ship cutting through Norwegian fjords, I think it’s safe to say that the metaphor still stands. Your Royal Highness, I look forward to working with you, and with the people of Norway, as we steer that ship to a more climate-conscious future for generations to come. 

I again offer you the warmest of welcomes, and wish you all the best in the events that you have planned for the days ahead. I hope that the impression that Fiji leaves you with lives long after you’ve left, and that today will mark the beginning of an even more fruitful, cooperative chapter in the relationship between our two proud nations. 

Vinaka vakalevu, takk skal du ha, and thank you.