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Climate change is the single greatest security threat to the Pacific, and all countries must meet their commitments under the Paris climate agreement, the 18 countries of the Pacific Islands Forum said on Wednesday.
The first assertion of the strongly worded Boe Declaration says all Pacific nations, including Australia, “reaffirm that climate change remains the single greatest threat to the livelihoods, security and wellbeing of the peoples of the Pacific, and our commitment to progress the implementation of the Paris agreement.
“Leaders reaffirmed the importance of immediate urgent action to combat climate change and … called on countries, particularly large emitters, to fully implement their … mitigation targets, including through the development and transfer of renewable energy, in line with committed timeframes.”
Leaders of the Forum Islands countries also called for the US to return to the Paris agreement and the commitments it made under President Barack Obama.
But the forthright declaration on climate is awkward politically for Australia, with its new prime minister, Scott Morrison, apparently at odds with his own government’s Energy Security Board over whether Australia will meet its Paris targets of a 26% reduction in emissions from 2005 levels.The government does not have any emissions reductions policies in place to achieve the target.
Morrison told a radio program on Wednesday that “the business-as-usual model gets us there [meeting the Paris targets] in a canter”. But the Energy Security Board said business as usual – and a failure to implement the now-discarded national energy guarantee – would mean the electricity sector would “fall short of the emissions reduction target of 26% below 2005 levels”.
The Australian government’s apparent ambivalence towards a low-emissions climate policy has disquieted its Pacific neighbours.
Australia signs declaration saying climate change ‘single greatest threat’ to Pacific
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