[Source: File Photo]

Stakeholders across the Asia-Pacific have been urged to move beyond promises and take bold, united action to address climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution.

Speaking at the opening of the Major Stakeholder Group Meeting in Nadi, Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs Lenora Qereqeretabua reminded participants that for Pacific peoples, the crisis is a lived reality.

“The Asia-Pacific region sits at the epicenter of the triple planetary crisis: climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution. For us in the Pacific, this crisis is not an abstract debate nor a distant threat. It is the rising tide swallowing ancestral lands, the storm that destroys schools and hospitals in a single night, and the plastics that wash up on our shores, choking the ocean that has sustained our people for centuries.”

She stressed that while environmental sustainability is at risk, there is a stronger force that must be recognized: the power of people and partnerships.

She also highlighted the need for courage, honesty, and solidarity as the region prepares for UNEA-7.

She said the gap between commitments and reality continues to widen, stressing that multilateral processes must prioritize the most vulnerable, not only powerful nations.

“We must ensure that UNEA-7, and indeed the multilateral system, delivers real financing for action, holds polluters accountable, and safeguards the rights of present and future generations. For Pacific peoples, this includes a presumption of continuity for our statehood and maritime zones, even as seas rise. Justice must not drown with us.”

Qereqeretabua further called on stakeholders to use the meeting to send a strong signal to governments and the global community that Asia-Pacific voices will shape the future, not merely observe it.

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