DEPUTY Prime Minister and Finance Minister Professor Biman Prasad has strongly defended the Coalition Government’s record on climate change.
Prof Prasad said the present Government has accomplished more in this area than any previous administration.
His remarks were in response to claims by former Attorney-General and Minister for Economy Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum who accused the current government of losing momentum on climate change initiatives since December 2022.
In a recent press conference, Mr Sayed-Khaiyum claimed Government had “taken its foot off the pedal” in addressing climate change and criticized the departure of specialists from the Ministry of Economy’s climate change division.
“They said when they moved to the PM’s office, one of the permanent secretaries told them, ‘I don’t want specialists; I want generalists,” Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said.
“It’s a modern-day world. You need specialists.”
Prof Prasad dismissed these claims labelling them as unfounded.
“I don’t know where this man is getting all this information from,” Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said.
“I don’t want to call him a liar, but he just lies ad nauseam.”
He said the Coalition Government’s achievements, including the hiring of more specialists and appointing a highly capable permanent secretary for climate change.
Prof Prasad criticized the previous administration’s approach, describing it as overly reliant on public relations campaigns and spending significant amounts of money on international conferences like the COP summits.
“When we came in, we have taken decisive steps. Now there’s a PRF (Pacific Recycling Foundation) being established and we were part of it.
“We have taken a very considered approach in COP 29.”
He further emphasised the Government’s close collaboration with major international financial institutions like the World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB) to secure climate finance and strengthen Fiji’s climate resilience. Prof Prasad asserted that the Coalition Government has a “much better handle on climate change” and is taking strategic steps to address both the environmental and financial challenges posed by climate change.
