Today’s Radio New Zealand news bulletin for the Pacific carried this information, and I quote
The United States has committed to cutting emissions by as much as 52 percent by 2030.
Launching the virtual US Leaders Summit on Climate Change in the White House early this morning, President Joe Biden announced an ambitious cut in greenhouse gas emissions.
Biden also confirmed America's return to the center of the global effort to address the climate crisis and curb carbon emissions.
The Pacific is represented by the Marshall Islands President David Kabua.
New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her Australian counterpart Scott Morrison are among 40 leaders attending the two-day talks.
While the goals are a part of the Paris Accord that Biden rejoined upon taking office in January, they are non-binding and Washington has not rolled out a plan on how the US will meet them.
Biden laid out his vision for a greener economy saying climate change was "taken seriously across all sectors and results in more jobs for the blue-collar workers" he had focused on throughout his career.
Biden called on the world leaders, particularly those who represented the world's largest economies including China, the UK and Russia, to take action within their own countries to curb emissions.
Today's discussions will underscore the urgent need for the world's major economies to strengthen their climate ambition by the time of COP26 in the UK in November.
The aim is to keep the goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius within reach, Biden said.
The summit provides an opportunity for leaders to highlight the climate-related challenges their countries face and the efforts they are undertaking, and to announce new steps to strengthen climate ambition.
End of Quote.
In a separate piece of news, also relayed by Radio New Zealand, the Marshall Islands Foreign Minister Casten Nemra says his country's people have no intention of relocating due to sea level rise.
Nemra's comments come as the Marshalls' president David Kabua attends the US-hosted virtual Leaders Summit on Climate Change.
Quote
The Marshalls is the only Pacific Island country to have a leader participating in the summit, where he is advancing regional concerns about the need for more urgent action to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions.
The US Geological Survey recently projected that some of the Marshalls' low-lying islands would be submerged by 2035, while others will probably lack drinking water because their aquifers would be contaminated with saltwater.
As a result, Marshallese could be forced to relocate from their homeland.
However, Nemra said the Marshallese were there to stay.
"Studies show that we've been here in the islands for the past two millenia. And we have every intent to stay here for the next two millenia," he said.
Let's put it that way. It's not an option for us to relocate or become so-called climate change refugees. It's comething we don't accept."
The Minister said it was important for climate change deliberations at the United Nations and other multi-lateral organisations factor in the Marshall Islands' viewpoint.
Nemra said the suggestion that their nation should relocate was "degrading" and a violation of their wellbeing, as the islands were central to the identity of Marshallese.
"We're the people who have been residing in these respective islands, and we're here to stay," he said.
"The issue of climate change is a modern issue, and we have to come together and combat it, and deal with it accordingly, legally and morally. But we have no intention whatsoever to relocate ourselves."
End of quote.
Yours sincerely
Frank Short
