Pacific Climate Change Ambassadors Take to the Front Line

On Sunday June the Greenpeace vessel the Esperanza was welcomed to Rarutonga, Cook Islands where a round of meetings began with Pacific climate change activists.  These Pacific representatives will play a crucial role in climate change negotiations at the Pacific Island Forum in Cairns later this year and the IPCC in Copenhagen in December. 

Earlier on this year the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), which includes 19 Pacific Island Nations, called on industrialised nations to committ to slashing their greenhouse gas emmissions by  more than 40% over the next decade. The Australian government was cited as a prime example of a nation that needs to take action.

“The Australian Government’s refusal to take strong action on climate change is condemning entire nations to a watery grave. Forced mass migrations are already underway in the Pacific and will only intensify. Increasing temperatures, changing weather patterns, and threats to food security due to ocean acidification, water scarcity and salination of soil are becoming commonplace,” said Greenpeace Climate Campaigner Trish Harrup.

“Kevin Rudd is siding with the massive multinational coal companies who seem to be writing this country’s environmental policies, rather than with our neighbours in the Pacific. Pacific people will not take this lying down and are continuing to fight for climate justice,” Ms Harrup said.

The Pacific nations and its people are now having to make decisions on their survival. For example, the highest point of Tuvalu is just 3 metres above sea level, making it very vulnerable to rising sea levels and extreme weather events. Threatened Pacific communities want to stay on their land but have no choice but to relocate, threatening their traditions and culture. Cultures that span back thousands of years.

Over the past few decades the average level of sea level rise has risen by 2mm per year.  Models used to analyse the effects of global warming predict this will accelerate in the coming decades.  The 2001 IPCC meeting predicted sea level rise of between 9 and 88 cm over this century

The primary producers of the greenhouse gases that cause climate change, the U.S., Japan, and Europe, account for more than 50 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, while Pacific island small island states account for a minuscule 3/100th of 1 percent of global emissions. Moreover, the world's primary greenhouse gas producers are both best equipped to adapt to climate change, while small island nations have the fewest options in this context. This presentation will address the potential impacts of climate change on Pacific island states. It will also assess whether customary international law or treaty law is a viable means of addressing the impending threat to small island states. More specifically, I will examine whether these legal mechanisms might accord small island states a cause of action that could compel a greater commitment by industrialized nations to greenhouse gas reductions or provision of substantial assistance to small island states to ameliorate climate change impacts.

The Greenpeace vessel on Sunday was, escorted into port by local canoes, will receive an official welcome by the Cook Island’s Environment Minister Ngamau Munokoa. Proud Pacific heritage was echoed by the presence of ‘Te au o Tonga’, the same canoe that sailed alongside Greenpeace as part of the 1995 peace flotilla to Mururoa to protest French nuclear testing.

The Esperanza crew will visit the Cook Islands, Samoa and Vanuatu documenting the impacts of climate change, speaking to the public and meeting with Pacific activists and political leaders. Oscar-nominated star of the film ‘Whale Rider’ Keisha Castle-Hughes will be joining the Esperanza crew. On Monday, Keisha will take part in an Open Boat Day and formal dinner, before meeting the Prime Minister of the Cooks Islands to discuss the plight of Pacific Island countries.