Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka says the Pacific is carrying a climate burden it did not create and is calling on global leaders to listen to communities on the front lines of climate change.
Delivering his remarks ahead of Pre-COP31 at the Ecumenical and Interfaith Sunday Service, Rabuka said Fiji and Pacific leaders would be clear about their message in addressing the core drivers of the climate crisis.
He urged world leaders attending climate discussions to approach the Pacific with an open heart and listen to those most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.
“I ask the leaders who come to our shores to do three things. We ask them to come, we ask them to see, and we ask them to listen with an open heart to those of us on the front line,” Rabuka said.
He called for accelerated action to honour the shared moral and legal obligation to limit the rise in global average temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Rabuka said every fraction of a degree of human-driven warming would cause further harm to homes, villages and livelihoods.
He also called on leaders to have the courage to confront continued dependence on fossil fuels, which he said was driving the climate crisis.
“We cannot, in good faith, allow it to unfold and grow any further,” he said.
Rabuka said Fiji and other Pacific leaders would also push for concrete action to address the impacts of climate change already being experienced across the region.
He stressed the importance of ensuring climate finance reaches the communities that need it most, particularly those on the front lines of the climate crisis.
