Excellencies,
Distinguished Professor Steven Ratuva
Ladies and Gentlemen,
My warmest greetings to you all and a special welcome if this is your first time to Fiji — I see my friend Ulamila Wragg also in the room who is of course no stranger in Fiji.
I thank my good friend distinguished Prof Steven Ratuva for extending this honour in which to make some introductory remarks, at such a groundbreaking regional conference on climate change assessments, by the co-convening of two fine Pacific institutions of higher education – the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, and the University of the South Pacific.
The Coalition Government is always welcoming of climate change initiatives, and I wholeheartedly thank the Government of New Zealand as represented by its Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade for supporting this project, and for investing in local talent and expertise.
As you know the issue of climate change and environmental protection falls under the portfolio of our Hon Prime Minister, and you will all be aware of his intention to prioritise it by his active participation at the global level soon at the 2023 Oceans Conference in Panama, in March.
Climate change can no longer be considered as a distant threat—it is happening right now, in our Pacific neighborhood. I know I don’t need to say this to many of you from our Pacific family, whose lived experiences are more confronting on a daily basis, then it is for us here in Fiji.
Something happened to our national psyche during and immediately after the devastation of TC Winston in 2016. Goodness me — its been 7 years already — but the remnants of her fury remains with us today both economically and emotionally.
Where disaster preparedness used to be a matter of complacency in the past, TC Winston jolted in us all a direct reminder that Mother Nature can also unleash devastation, even though we were more accustomed to the beauty and wonder of nature.
In the Pacific we have all witnessed varying degrees of the destructive power of natural disasters, eroding coastlines, and the loss of precious marine life such as coral bleaching.
But it is our people most of all especially from our rural communities who bear the heaviest burden of rebuilding, when they lose everything.
It is only after coming out of a harrowing experience such as a Category 5 cyclone, after the rubble is cleared when many dear friends of Fiji such as Australia, New Zealand arrived immediately after TC Winston to assist in our recovery — that it dawns upon us that resilience and the building of it, is our shield against climate change.
Resilience gives us more latitude in which to bounce back from climate related disasters especially those hardest hit in our communities, so that food, shelter, water, clothing, electricity, healthcare, sanitation and safety allows them to get back on their feet.
Of course after TC Winston, the national discourse in Fiji also focused on hardening infrastructure and homes that can withstand the impacts of extreme weather events. By constructing stronger buildings, improving reticulation, and implementing early warning systems, we can minimize the loss of life and property — this of course has economic considerations, as well as a need for new building standards by engineers, architects and building contractors.
However, resilience and vulnerability reduction alone are not enough. These pillars need to be backed up by adaptation—our ability to adjust to changing climatic conditions.
In the Pacific we are only too aware from our engagement at the global Climate Change negotiations, how we continue to insist that we are the least responsible for global emissions compared to industrialized nations, yet we pay the highest price with our small economies, when climate induced disasters strike.
Thankfully we are rich in our traditional science, customary knowledge and practices that have sustained us for generations. Now they hold the key to our future.
It is essential that we be led by traditional wisdom and weave it where possible with modern scientific advancements, research and development, for innovative solutions to help us adapt to the climate change challenges ahead.
But let us not be any further complacent.
Fiji, through the Climate Change Act and the National Ocean Policy, has also placed significant emphasis on research and knowledge.
Part 8 of the Climate Change Act is completely devoted to research, data collection, reporting and monitoring. This underscores a commitment to invest in climate change research and to broaden our understanding of the implications of this phenomenon on Fiji, and the greater Pacific.
The National Oceans Policy also has a dedicated goal on Knowledge, stressing the importance of integrating traditional environmental knowledge with the best available science.
The innate knowledge of the symbiosis of the ocean and our people of the Pacific since time immemorial is owned by our people, and science is only now catching up. It is critical that we invest our energy in the protection and storing of this knowledge.
Therefore, research for climate change assessments that draws upon traditional science — must honour and acknowledge the holders of traditional knowledge.
As a former academic and I know that Prof Ratuva knows this also, when publishing academic papers we are often very systematic about getting authors and editors’ names stamped on our papers to send out for peer review, and finally publication.
But for holders of traditional knowledge whether they are individuals or communities, we must now officially and publicly honour them as co-authors too.
It is after all their knowledge that they share so freely with many policy makers and academics. Let us also acknowledge that their precious customary wisdom must be sought with free, prior and informed consent — and give credit to our traditional knowledge specialists.
They did not acquire that knowledge easily — it is more than likely carefully passed down orally based on years of lived experiences and practices, generations prior.
To that end, as a Coalition Government it also means that our National Research Council Act of 2017 and our immigration permit policies for research, must also align to that effect.
Customary knowledge that can aid adaptation, also exists among our Indo-Fijian communities. In Vanua Levu where I am from, the hardy red rice variety was always planted and stored in our backyard storage houses for years on end. It was milled by hand or at a factory when needed. That is one way that our elders used to prepare for food security when bad weather was imminent in the old days, and this practice continues to this day. When our relatives come to Suva they will often bring our share of red rice as gifts. These gifts are also heartwarming reminders of home even though we live in Suva.
I am willing to wager a bet that there is a rich storehouse and wealth of traditional science and practices also among our Rotuman, Solomon Islander, Ni-Vanuatan Tongan, Samoan, Chinese, Tuvaluan, Rabi and Banaban Islanders who have lived in Fiji for generations too. Let us think about partnering with them to capture and acknowledge them in research, as holders of their traditional knowledge “wealth”.
I recall some years ago, the South Pacific Regional Environmental Programme (SPREP) in Samoa began an innovative weather warning project that weaved in traditional knowledge among meteorologists. I hope this can be revived and replicated in a bigger way.
These insights that I share today, pose another thought for reflection. Our policy-makers must no longer be content to sit in the offices of our various capitals spanning around at regional and international meetings, without regular on-the-ground ground truthing.
If we are really representing our people at global climate change negotiations, their stories, their interests and their voices must echo through us — that is why meeting like this you are at today, is critical in reminding ourselves of our place in the bigger picture. Climate change negotiations, after all, despite the technical and acronym laden jargon, is about people. Our people.
Ladies and Gentlemen, we cannot address our climate issues without our status as large Ocean States, being at the heart of it.
The ocean plays a crucial role in regulating our climate. They act as natures carbon sink, absorbing vast amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. However, the relentless burning of fossil fuels has led to a dramatic increase in greenhouse gas emissions, causing the oceans to absorb excessive amounts of CO2.
What has been lacking thus far was a documented understanding of the intricacies of our inter-generational relationship and knowledge of our ocean.
The extent that the negative impacts of the climate crisis has had on our marine ecosystems needs research and through initiatives such as the Pacific Ocean Climate Crisis Assessment project (POCCA) we hope to demystify a lot of this, especially circumstances that need to be addressed immediately.
Furthermore, if the discourse on the oceans and climate nexus is being looked at, Fiji’s Climate Change Act also needs refining.
For example, the previous Government passed that law and inserted a clause for a “carbon budget”. The previous Government never complied with it themselves, and I can tell you in all honesty that the Coalition Government may consider it in next year’s budget.
Fiji’s Climate Change Act must also be refined to not only cite “blue carbon” as extensively as it does, but ensure that it provides a sound and reasonable mechanism to register blue carbon sequestration property rights — that does not solely involve the Registrar of Titles.
In its present form, these clauses in the Act are like asking the Land Transport Authority to register shipping vessels.
Therefore, while mangroves, seagrasses and saltwater marshes are valuable blue carbon stores, that for the most part can be found within customary fishing grounds, we need to fix this gap in the treatment of registration of blue carbon sequestration property rights, in the law.
I commend the work that the University of Canterbury and the University of the South Pacific have done to jointly deliver on this project which spans almost the entirety of our region. It goes without saying that to realise our climate ambition goals we need to address this crisis as the ‘Blue Pacific’ and not independently.
Initiatives such as this are drivers for regionalism, and is a testament to our shared intention of protecting that which we are custodians of, such as our ocean.
The work of this climate assessment compliments the work that we have been striving to complete under the Research and Systems Observation agenda and hopefully this will greatly assist the positions of Pacific Small Island States, during our negotiations under the ocean-climate nexus mandate of the UNFCCC.
Policy makers in Fiji and the region look forward to the climate assessments that you are working on. These are important inputs for our domestic policy making. These will be significant inputs for our regional policy making. They will be powerful inputs into the international diplomacy on climate and oceans headed by our Prime Minister Hon Sitiveni Rabuka for Fiji and by the Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum for the region as a whole.
As Fiji’s Finance Minister, I need to know what a 3.0 degree Celsius temperature rise means for our farmers; for our roads, for our critical infrastructure, for our airports. I need to understand the scale of financing needed to adapt and build our resilience.
These assessment matter for that.
Fiji’s Health Minister needs to know what health consequences we must plan for at 2 degree and a 3 degree Celsius temperature rise. These climate assessments matter for saving lives.
Fiji’s Minister responsible for poverty alleviation needs to understand how many more households will end up with elevated levels of food security as our reef systems collapse under the weight of more than 1.5 Celcius temperature increase. These climate assessments matter for our poverty reduction efforts.
We need to prepare for these scenarios; we need to plan and program. As a country, we must never ever be in a situation where Government begins to distribute water tanks after a drought has already started; or government begins to relocate people only after salt water intrusion has already destroyed crops and livelihoods.
These are things we must do and prepare for because that is where all the data suggests the World is headed. The World is likely to breach the 1.5C rise within the next five years. This is alarming. This is outrageously irresponsible. This is outright selfish of the large polluters – both in our immediate neighbourhood and well beyond.
The Prime Minister is crystal clear in his view. Fiji and the Pacific must not have to adapt and build their resilience through loans. The industrial world has led us to this. They must pay up for this destruction. That is why the World must deliver by 2025 at least $750 billion annually in climate finance. That is why the World must deliver on at least $50 billion annually by 2025 for small island developing states – earmarked for them; on grant terms; and at the most on highly concessionary terms and nothing less.
We look to the new head of the World Bank to deliver on this promise. We look to the Green Finance Facility (GCF) to deliver on resources on this scale to small island states. We look to our bilateral partners to deliver finances on this scale. And yes we look to the large polluters both developing and developed to do a lot lot more.
Your climate assessments are crucial building blocks for Fiji and the Pacific’s international diplomacy. Fiji’s calls on the industrial world to make substantial contributions of new climate finance to the new loss and damage facility by the time world meets for climate talks in UAE later this year. The time for talk is long long gone.
We are relocating some 40 villages for whom adaptation options are no longer available. We need to rebuild roads and infrastructure damaged or destroyed through repeated climate catastrophes. These stories are much worse in our low lying atoll states across the Blue Pacific.
Climate change is the story of our times. Working in solidarity and unity with fellow Pacific island states; our civil society and our communities – this will be the story of our resilience and of our fortitude. We will not stop until we return the planet to a path of 1.5C temperature rise. We will not stop until every person, every community and every island state can feel safe and secure once again. That is our commitment in the Coalition Government. This is my commitment.
I thank you.