History will judge you harshly if you abandon us to our apparent fate of sinking below the waves because you don’t want to make the necessary adjustment to your domestic policies.
That is the message to Australia and other developed countries on the issue of climate change from Fijian Prime Minister, Voreqe Bainimarama as the 2nd Pacific Islands Development Forum Summit kicked off in Nadi today.
Bainimarama appealed to Australia and other countries not to behave selfishly over the catastrophic prospect facing the small island developing states.
He stressed the Pacific’s collective disappointment at the failure of the international community to address the challenges that confront Pacific islanders because of climate change.
Bainimarama said the rising sea levels caused by global warming threaten the very existence of some of our neighbours - Kiribati, Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands - and are already swamping the coastal areas of many Pacific nations, including Fiji.
The Prime Minister said the collective will of the global community to adequately address this crisis is receding.
He said this is certainly the case in our own region, where the election of the new government in Australia last September has seen a distinct change of rhetoric about cutting carbon emissions.
Meanwhile the President of Republic of Indonesia, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has revealed that his country intends to allocate a funding of 20 million US dollars for the Pacific Islands countries.
While opening the Pacific Islands Development Forum Summit in Nadi, Yudhoyono said in the next five years Indonesia will offer various capacity building programs.
He also said Indonesia is committed to enlarging the economic ties with the PIDF countries particularly in trade and investment.
Bainimarama has also assured Yudhoyono and delegates at the PIDF that Fiji is determined the general election will be free and fair.
The Prime Minister said Fiji will emulate Yudhoyono’s leadership when the country holds the first genuinely democratic election under the new Constitution, with a common and equal citizenry - for the first time, one person, one vote, one value - and a predominantly Christian country in a secular state.
