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Developing nations must do more: Fiji PM tells UNGA

September 30, 2015 10:56 pm

Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama has told the United Nations General Assembly that major developing nations must do more to reduce carbon emissions and control the production of greenhouse gases.

Bainimarama says Fiji, like all other Small Island Developing States, see the future dimmed by the prospect of climate change and sea-level rise

He says it is not acceptable for advanced economies to build a high standard of living on the degradation of the earth and the seas.

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He adds, it is also not acceptable for major nations that are industrialising to assert that they need to degrade the earth, the air and the seas in order to build their economies, just as the advanced countries did years ago.

Bainimarama says the consequences are real for Fiji, with the relocation of 45 villages to higher grounds already starting.

He told the General Assembly that Fiji has also committed to resettle people from other low-lying South Pacific Island States that face the prospect of being swallowed up by the rising ocean.

Bainimarama says climate change is very real, it is happening now and it’s time to shed our indifference.

He says the emergency is now, the solution must be now and the time for excuses is over.