29 September 2014
Samoan Prime Minister: ‘International community’s actions to address climate change are grossly inadequate’
Leaders of small island developing nations urged the UN General Assembly to prioritise climate change and assist in their front line battle against its mounting impact.
‘The international community’s actions to address climate change are grossly inadequate. We are focusing more on symptoms, not the root causes’, said Samoan Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele, whose capital city, Apia, hosted the third annual UN conference on Small Island Developing States earlier this month. The Prime Minister called on member states to follow up on the political, economic and other promises made in the ‘Samoa Pathway’, the agreed outcome from the Conference. ‘We took seriously the commitments given for SIDS at the conference and we will remain deeply mindful of how those commitments are turned into actions’, he stressed.
The President of Dominica, Charles Savarin, echoed Mr. Sailele’s statements, adding that the survival of this group of states depends not only on the individual and collective actions taken by SIDS, but on action or inaction of the entire international community.
In addition, President Emanuel Mori of Micronesia has advocated for a rapid global phase-down of HFC gasses under the Montreal Protocol, which could prevent average temperatures from rising up to 0.5 per cent Celsius by the end of this century and could reduce the rate of sea-level rise by 25 per cent. ‘This near-term climate mitigation will give all atolls around the globe a chance to survive’, Mr. Mori said.
Source: UN News Centre | Specter of climate change looms large, say small island nations at UN