Minister for Environment, Dr Mahendra Reddy and People’s Alliance Party Leader Sitiveni Rabuka.

Minister for Environment, Dr Mahendra Reddy, says the People’s Alliance Party Leader Sitiveni Rabuka is undermining Fiji’s climate leadership.

This as Rabuka had earlier raised questions about the oil spill at Draunibota in Lami and also questioned about the Fijian delegation leaving for COP 26.

Rabuka had asked what this delegation would achieve at the climate conference, stating urgent action is required here at home.

During a press conference today, Dr Reddy highlighted that during Rabuka’s term as Prime Minister, Fiji had no vision of greener and bluer future.

Dr Reddy says issues relating to the environment should remain above any political fray.

He also stated that it is obvious to anyone listening to Rabuka’s nonsense that putting a snake in a suit does not make him a statesman.

“We had far fewer environmental protection measures on the books and no voice in the global affairs that shape our reality on the ground. If Fiji’s fate were left to his cynical and shortsighted politicking now, our natural environment would be degraded beyond recognition in this century.”

Dr Reddy says Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama’s leadership on the world stage is helping to break the world’s dangerous addiction to harmful fossil fuels.

“I have never seen a man so committed to ending up on the wrong side of history. How can Rabuka pretend to care about the environment and then attack our Prime Minister for leading on climate change in the same breath? His own village, Drekeniwai, was being threatened by climate change. The foreshore was being washed away. It was our Prime Minister’s vision to establish a dedicated Ministry of Waterways which deployed resources and successfully constructed a nature-based seawall completed a few months back. If Rabuka was that concerned, he could have at least protected his own village before talking about protecting the country.”

Dr Reddy says they are not focused on one year of political mileage but on a decade of action that reduces carbon emissions in Fiji.