Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama

Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama joined 100 speakers including leaders and experts to share Fiji’s journey to economic recovery in the 2020 Virtual Island Summit yesterday.

Bainimarama says the COVID-19 crisis is an unfortunate turn of fate for the very nations that were already on the frontlines of combating climate change.

The Prime Minister says Fiji and other small island countries have experienced the wrath of strengthening storms and rising sea level for years.

Bainimarama says with Pacific island countries facing a dual crisis, island nations must stand together with a unified voice to sound the alarm for the developed countries to reduce their carbon emission.

He also highlighted that the collapse of the tourism industries across all small island states means that islanders from the Pacific have experienced outsized suffering.

The Prime Minister quoted a report which highlights that a remarkable 28 trillion tonnes of ice melted from Earth’s surface between 1994 and 2017 causing sea level rise.

Bainimarama adds this has proved to be devastating for island nations threatening to damage critical infrastructures and coastal communities.

It was a privilege to open the @IslandsInnovate Virtual Summit. In Fiji, we see ourselves as an incubator for innovation. That is what all islands have the potential to be –– incubators for the big blue and green ideas that can be scaled up around the world. pic.twitter.com/RQnRpelzso

— Frank Bainimarama (@FijiPM) September 8, 2020