Island Nations Blame Rich Countries Responsible For Climate Inaction At UN Assembly
At the UN General Assembly this week, island nations facing the brunt of climate change's effects challenged wealthy nations, claiming their survival was at peril because industrialised nations were not acting quickly enough.
Saint Lucia's Prime Minister Philip Pierre said that there are many among us, the small and marginalised islands of the globe, surrounded by rising seas and scorched by rising temperatures, who are beginning to question this annual parade of flowery speeches and public pretence of brotherhood, otherwise known as the U. N. annual General Assembly.
Many speakers at the seven-day event quoted U. N Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who in July cautioned that the era of global warming had ended and the era of global boiling had started.
The prominent theme here was the lack of urgency by developed nations. The speakers laid importance on the failure to sufficiently restrain greenhouse gas emissions had contributed to rising sea levels, threatening islands and low-lying nations.
Countries committed to limiting global temperature increases to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), which scientists think will prevent the worst effects of warming, as part of the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change mitigation.
According to scientists, in order to achieve that objective, global emissions must be cut in half by 2030 and to zero by 2050.
David Kabua, president of the Marshall Islands, asked for the creation of an international financial facility to aid small island states and low-lying atoll countries that are affected by natural disasters.
In order to change course, including the phase-out of fossil fuels, Kabua said that nations attending the UN COP28 climate summit beginning in November must admit that the world is falling short of the Paris Agreement's goals.
US President Joe Biden will host a second summit with leaders of the Pacific Islands Forum at the White House on Monday, where climate will be on the agenda. The gathering is part of Washington's efforts to step up engagement with a region where the U.S. is in a battle for influence with China.
(Input from Reuters)
