The coalition government will re-examine Fiji’s Climate Change Act.

This has been revealed by Minister for Finance Professor Biman Prasad during a Pacific Ocean Climate Crisis Assessment.

He says the previous government passed a law and inserted a clause for a “carbon budget,” but claims they never complied with it themselves.

Minister for Finance Professor Biman Prasad while speaking at the opening of the Pacific Ocean Climate
Crisis Assessment (POCCA) in Nadi yesterday.

Professor Prasad says the current government will consider this in next year’s budget.

“Fiji’s Climate Change Act must also be refined to not only cite “blue carbon” as extensively as it does, but ensure that it provides a sound and reasonable mechanism to register blue carbon sequestration property rights that does not solely involve the Registrar of Titles. Therefore, while mangroves, sea grasses, and saltwater marshes are valuable blue carbon stores that, for the most part, can be found within customary fishing grounds, we need to fix this gap in the treatment of registration of blue carbon sequestration property rights in the law.”

Professor Prasad also highlights that, despite being least responsible for global emissions compared to industrialized nations, small economies such as Fiji continue to pay the highest price when climate-induced disasters strike.