iji’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Satyendra Prasad.

In pursuit of limiting global temperature rise to the 1.5-degree Celsius target, Fiji is kicking its global consensus-building efforts into overdrive in 2020 to secure decisive, ambitious climate action.

Fiji’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Satyendra Prasad said Fiji’s Mission in New York is building a unified approach among regional and international partners in the call for urgency and action towards climate adaptation.

He said COP25 2019 held in Madrid Spain showed that there is still a lot of work that needs to be achieved in terms of combatting climate change.

He stated that reducing global warming to 1.5°C is a global imperative.

Ambassador Prasad says Fiji cannot do it alone, small Island Developing States cannot do it by themselves, all countries will need to be fully committed to this.

Reflecting on COP25, Ambassador Prasad said that integration of oceans pathway into climate change strategies is an excellent step in the right direction.

Fiji’s PRUN emphasized that the inclusion of oceans is testament to Fiji’s advocacy on Oceans. He said that this achievement is attributed to the persistent leadership of Honourable Prime Minister, Voreqe Bainimarama to place oceans at the heart of the climate action.

“This is a significant achievement for Fiji. Fiji and Sweden co-hosted the first UN Oceans Conference at the United Nations in New York in 2017. The world has slowly come around to our view – that the oceans is at the center stage and not the sidelines of our global effort to fight climate change.”

As Nations will review and update their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) in 2020 – in accordance with the 2015 Paris Agreement adopted by Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

These will give greater attention to the role of ocean-based measures in climate strategies. The new NDC, should incorporate ocean actions within the scope of NDCs.

Speaking from the perspective of Small Island Developing States, Ambassador Prasad emphasized that the Developing Island States of the Pacific contribute the least to the climate crisis, yet stood to lose the most from climate-related impacts.

‘There is still much to be done in order to bring about radical change in the attitudes of the developed countries of large corporations and consumers’.

Fiji’s PRUN says that climate change is a human rights crisis. It adversely affects people’s rights to basic necessities like health, housing, water and food. “Human rights perspective needs to be bought to the centre stage in climate discussions.

He said that Fiji is adopting this approach through its new Climate Bill which is being developed from Human Rights perspective.

“Such policy adoption gives a strong signal to the rest of the world in terms of putting human rights upfront in their approach to climate action and addressing climate crisis,” Ambassador Prasad elaborated.