A roundup of news arising from President Joe Biden’s virtual summit on climate change

A roundup of news arising from President Joe Biden’s virtual summit on climate change

Posted by : frank short Posted on : 26-Apr-2021

The Marshall Islands was the only small Pacific country to be invited to the Biden summit and spoke up for its small island nations.

Radio New Zealand has reportedly today, Saturday, on happenings at the summit and who said what and I will quote some of the extracts from the several news bulletins.

Firstly, though, a comment by Andrew Restuccia and Timothy Puko shared to me by the United Nations on my Linkedin page.

Quote.

President Biden sought to assert U.S. leadership in global climate talks, committing to a sharp reduction in the nation’s greenhouse-gas emissions at a summit Thursday that drew promises from other world leaders to take action and calls for rich nations to shoulder more responsibility.

“No nation can solve this crisis on our own,” Mr. Biden said at the start of the two-day virtual climate summit at the White House. “All of us, and particularly those of us that represent the world’s largest economies, we have to step up.”

This week’s climate summit is aimed at jump-starting global efforts to reduce emissions as part of the Paris agreement, which calls on countries to ratchet up their climate commitments every five years. The deal relies largely on international pressure, rather than legally binding enforcement mechanisms, to convince countries to make deep emissions cuts.

Scientists and activists have said that without major action this decade from the U.S., China, the European Union, India and other top emitters, countries won’t be able to meet the Paris agreement’s goal of keeping average global temperature rises to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels. Temperature increases above that threshold could be devastating for some ecosystems and could result in rising seas that flood major cities, among other risks, according to the United Nations.

Mr. Biden used the summit to unveil a new target that calls for cutting U.S. emissions 50% to 52% from 2005 levels by 2030. The year 2005 is a common baseline for such climate targets.

End of quote,

The Marshall Islands issued a plea for help and a call to action at the US Leaders Summit on Climate Change.

President Kabua shared the stage with the world's biggest economies and pressured those he said held the Pacific's future in their hands.

He said there were a series of island nations already feeling the effects of rising oceans but the Pacific now faced an even greater threat.

"We are low-lying atoll nations, barely a metre above sea level," he said.

"For millennia, our people have navigated between our islands to build thriving communities and cultures.

"Today, we are navigating through the storm of climate change, determined to do our part to steer the world to safety."

President Kabua told the leaders their actions had a direct bearing upon the future of the Marshall Islands and others in the Pacific and beyond.

He called for stronger emission targets, a carbon levy to help the most vulnerable and for 50 percent of climate financing to go towards adapting to the devastating effects of climate change.

"We know what a safe harbour looks like."

President Kabua said the Marshall Islands, with AOSIS, fought for years to create consensus around a 1.5 degrees Celsius temperature goal.

"In 2015, we brought together the High Ambition Coalition to turn the 1.5 to stay alive rallying cry into a goal shared by all parties to the Paris Agreement."

The role of the coalition is even more important today to ensure that 1.5 remains in reach, Kabua said.

He said the coalition's key task this year was to ensure that updated national emissions commitments were in line with that goal.

"NCDs are where ambition moves from promise to plan. Given how far off-track the world is today, it is vital that we come together every five years to increase ambition.

"All nations should also be charting long-term net zero strategies and implementation pathways before COP26 in the UK in November."

Too often, vulnerable countries hear the excuse that steep emissions cuts are too costly, Kabua said.

But he added political signals, especially from the major economies, shaped decisions on investment and innovations for low-carbon pathways.

The Marshall Islands leader said the recovery from Covid-19 gave the country a rare chance to invest in a safer and healthier world.

President Kabua said now was the moment for this signal to be unequivocal: the recovery from Covid-19 gave the Pacific a rare chance to invest in a safer and healthier world.

Sector-wide transformations were possible, he said.

"Together with the Solomon Islands, we are pushing for stronger emissions action at the IMO through a carbon levy to fund research and help the most vulnerable.

"Leading from the front-lines, we were the first to strengthen our NDCs in 2018. And we have a 2050 net-zero strategy paired with an electricity roadmap as our implementation pathway.

"We recently celebrated the success of the Micronesia Challenge and will be joining the Local2030 Islands Network."

But the President said all this would not be enough if the big emitters failed to act.

We feel the effects of climate change now, he said, and so the Marshalls is leading the way on adaptation.

President Kabua said Majuro delivered its Adaptation Communication in 2020 and developing the National Adaptation Plan.

"Adequate and accessible financing is key. And so I support the call for 50 percent of climate financing to go towards adaptation."

End of quote.

Support for the world's developing and worst-affected nations was a common theme at the virtual summit.

The issue was raised repeatedly by Biden and leaders from India, China, Germany, the EU and others.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said his country was providing $US1.5 billion in "practical climate finance, focusing on the blue Pacific family partners in our region".

Mr. Morrison's New Zealand counterpart Jacinda Ardern opened her address to the summit by saying her country's "Pacific neighbours have identified climate change is the single biggest threat to their livelihoods, security and well being".

"Our collective goal here at this summit and beyond has to be effective global action on climate change," Ardern said.

"That means our collective commitments in 2021 will need to be enough to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial temperatures."

Developing countries said the United States still owed $US2 billion in aid for transitioning away from fossil fuels that former President Barack Obama had promised but President Donald Trump didn't pay.

However, Biden delivered new pledges, saying the US would double climate funding help for less wealthy countries by 2024.

That cost would be more than made up for when "disasters and conflicts are avoided," he said.

For the Marshall Islands and President David Kabua, it's not what the world is going to do to address the climate crisis but more when.

"I'll conclude by asking my fellow leaders, how will you move from plans to implementation to align with a 1.5 degree future and help others do the same?

"Your answer will define the future for your children and grandchildren, and for mine."

In separate comments on the question of climate action Brianna Fruean, a Samoan climate activist who has been leading grassroots climate justice movements for most of her life wrote, quote.

The world is buzzing as President Biden hosts his big climate change summit. With this buzz there is a lot of big talk on how the attending climate leaders are leading the way towards climate action.

This summit should make me feel hopeful, yet I cannot help but feel a sense of déjà vu. These big talks happen all the time, and when the leaders sign out, they go back home to little or no action.

New Zealand did not take the opportunity to announce new nationally determined contributions which fellow Pacific nations and developed world leaders - the US, Canada, Japan - already have.

Year after year we see low targets, dirty lobbying, tokenistic speeches, and broken promises. It is not that I am pessimistic about change; it is that I am tired of mainstream media painting these big nations like they are the "climate leaders" who will save us when it is the young people, activists, movement organisers and indigenous communities that are showing true climate leadership.

There is so much that Biden's summit can learn from frontline villages, organisers and activists, and there are so many stories from these communities.

There is a misconception that sustainability is something we are trying to get to but really, it is something we're trying to get "back" to. Indigenous communities have lived in harmony with nature for centuries and our practices are based around principles of environmental conservation.

Our indigenous communities already hold so many of the solutions we need to adapt to this crisis.

I have a friend, Mika, who is a farmer back in the islands. He is from Tokelau where a big issue has been saltwater intrusion into their soil due to sea level rise. This saltwater intrusion caused many of their crops to die, unable to handle the salinity in the soil.

Knowing how this would impact his village's food security Mika started looking for solutions. He found exactly what he needed in a method of gardening that originated in Lesotho, in Africa, where communities there were having trouble planting because their soil was too dry.

Tokelau, on the other hand, was having difficulty planting because their soil was too wet. Mika learnt a method called keyhole gardening, gave it an island twist, and found ways to build these types of gardens throughout Tokelau. This traditional knowledge from Lesotho and Tokelau was woven together to form the perfect solution.

This is a lesson in the value of having indigenous communities be a part of the climate resilience conversation, so they can share these solutions with each other and the world. Climate solutions will not solely be found in future technology, but also in practices of our indigenous past.

More Pacific voices should have been heard

Biden's summit is being labelled as progressive and a show of climate leadership, yet there is a lack of participation from real climate leaders. Those on the frontlines fighting in the eye of the storm.

I am very grateful that the Marshall Islands is represented and providing the voice of the Pacific islands, but even then, the weight of all our islands should not just fall on one island. Our ocean is big and our places diverse, all our challenges and solutions should not just all fall on the Marshall Islands to voice.

More Pacific islands should have been invited. Before even thinking of the need to invite representatives from places like Tonga or Solomon Islands, the Biden administration should have at least invited its own US associated islands. American Samoa, Guam, Palau, and Hawaii all deserved their own seat at the table.

We all know that island nations are experiencing the impacts of climate change at an extreme rate compared to the rest of the world, yet the US did not even invite the islands that they are linked to for this climate summit. All indigenous people who live on land that has been historically exploited by the US and continues to be exploited by the US should have had a prominent seat at the table. From the K?naka Maoli to the Native Americans, their voices should have been in this space.

Although I want to remain hopeful as I see summits like Biden's take full effect, I must constantly remind myself that I cannot rely on these closed spaces of exclusive leaders to solve the climate crisis.

I have to remind myself that I must look for hope in real climate leaders like the solar students in Samoa and village farmers like Mika, who continue to show real climate leadership. The world has so much to learn from them. If there were three things I could ask President Biden to implement in his next summit it would be invite more island nations, value indigenous communities for the knowledge they hold, and invest in climate solutions like those on the frontlines of its impact.

I look forward to the day when the talking stops and the action begins.

End of quote.

Source. Radio New Zealand,

Yours sincerely

Frank Short

www.solomonislandsinfocus.com

Quick Enquiry