'Put your money where your mouth Pacific climate leaders tell big nations

By Jayvee Vallejera

Beyond mere promises of support for ocean biodiversity and the fight against climate change, the upcoming 31st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, or COP31, must focus on allocating funds to specific goals and implementing solutions.

Lenora Qereqeretabua, Fiji’s assistant minister for foreign affairs, bannered this call during Tuesday's press briefing in the lead-up to a series of international gatherings on climate and biodiversity this year that will span the globe from Palau and Tuvalu to the COP31 in Türkiye.

For Pacific Islanders, who are increasingly being flooded out of their home islands by rising seas, this is an occasion to put their lived experience, knowledge and solutions directly before the world, Qereqeretabua said.

“We should use this opportunity not simply to remind the world of our vulnerability, but to demonstrate our leadership,” she said.

Lindsey Young, vice president of research at Pristine Seas, also called on the world to act now and take a cue from science, which has recommended measures for protecting biodiversity.

Lenora Qereqeretabua

“COP is the chance to turn that evidence into action,” she said.

Coral Pasisi, director of Climate Change and Sustainability at The Pacific Community, or SPC, warned that the planet’s average temperature is predicted to increase by 1.5 degrees Celsius within five years.

That is the global warming limit set by the Paris Agreement, which the International Court of Justice has recognized as the scientific benchmark for limiting global warming.

“Above that, we enter a range of rapid change that, as humans, we have never, ever faced as a planet,” Pasisi said.

With a super El Niño forecast to intensify later this year, protecting biodiversity and mitigating the impacts of climate change is more urgent now, according to Kevin Chand, director of Pacific Ocean Policy at Pristine Seas.

Papua New Guinea has created the Western Manus Marine Protected Area, one of the largest MPAs ever created in the Pacific. Vanuatu designated the Torba MPA to the north of its archipelago. Fiji announced 50 percent protection would be implemented by the end of 2026. Samoa designated 30 percent of its ocean space for protection.

“These developments are all very exciting because it means the Pacific is closer to achieving its 30x30 commitments,” Chand said, referring to a global initiative that aims to protect 30 percent of the Earth's land and oceans by the year 2030.

Young said that 30x30 can't just mean protecting a random 30 percent of the ocean. What’s needed is to pick the habitats, areas, and places where protection will matter most.

Pasisi concedes that small Pacific island states may have minimal impact in reducing their carbon footprint, but what their countries do bring to the table is the largest natural capital endowment on the planet.

The Pacific region, she said, is 28 million square kilometers of pristine ocean space in the heart of the largest blue lung on the planet—most of that under the jurisdiction of these small island developing states.

“You could fit China, the United States, and Canada into that space and still have room to move,” Pasisi said.

Unfortunately, Pacific Island countries have the least access to finance to deal with the impacts of climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution, and over-harvesting, Pasisi said.

This is where COP31 can make a difference, Qereqeretabua said.

“For Fiji and for the Pacific, COP 31 must be about implementation. We need climate finance that is not only accessible, but predictable and appropriate for small island developing states. We need adaptation finance to reach the communities that are already experiencing the impacts of climate change,” said Qereqeretabua.

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She said the Pacific delegates to COP13 will demand that richer nations stop making promises and start implementing.

“We have come away from numerous COPs with promises of millions of dollars for loss and damage, money that still has not been seen. We must connect implementation and climate ambition with finance,” she said.

She said pre-COP31 activities in Fiji and Tuvalu from Oct. 5 to 8 will be an opportunity for people from outside to see firsthand “what we have been asking the world to see through our eyes and now through their own eyes.”

For Pacific island countries, the climate change issue is not separate from the ocean, Qereqeretabua said, noting that they directly suffer the consequences of warmer seas when sea levels rise, coral reefs die off and fisheries are disrupted.

“This is why I believe that the ocean must move from the margins of the climate conversation to being the center of it,” she said.

A series of climate-related gatherings kicks off with the 55th Pacific Islands Forum Leaders in Palau (Aug. 30-Sept. 4). This will be followed by:
 ·World Seabird Conference – Hobart, Tasmania (Sept. 7-11)
 ·11th Pacific Islands Conference for Nature Conservation – Noumea, New Caledonia (Sept. 7-11)
 · Pre-COP31 (31st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) – Fiji/Tuvalu (Oct. 5-8)
  ·COP17 (17th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity) – Yerevan, Armenia (Oct. 19-30)
  ·Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2026 – St John's, Antigua and Barbuda (Nov. 1-4)
  ·COP31 (31st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) – Antalya, Türkiye (Nov. 9-20)

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