Dr Satyendra Prasad

Fiji’s Ambassador to the United Nations has called on the UN Security Council to recognise that climate change poses growing threats to international peace and security.

Speaking on behalf of the Prime Minister, in a special UN Security Council meeting Dr Satyendra Prasad highlighted the growing security dimensions of climate change remains to be systematically addressed by the UN.

He says climate change makes competition for resources more intense and conflicts more protracted which makes political solutions more difficult to achieve.

Ambassador Prasad also highlighted that climate change is an existential crisis for Pacific Small Island Developing States.

He says as a large ocean state, Pacific Islands depend on our oceans for livelihoods.

Warming oceans have triggered a large-scale displacement of migratory fish stocks from our Exclusive Economic Zones into cooler waters of the Eastern Pacific.”

The loss to Pacific Islands in just this one situation, Ambassador Prasad said is in excess of $1 billion per year – almost twice as much as the total ODA to the Pacific States each year.