Fijian Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama told Sputnik on Tuesday he regretted that the Paris Agreement's implementation was hindered by many countries who failed to turn away from the use of fossil fuels and are attempting to revise the climate deal
MADRID (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th December, 2019) Fijian Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama told Sputnik on Tuesday he regretted that the Paris Agreement's implementation was hindered by many countries who failed to turn away from the use of fossil fuels and are attempting to revise the climate deal.Fossil fuel combustion has been at an all-time high this year, accounting for close to 90 percent of all carbon dioxide emissions. A UN panel on climate change agreed last year that CO2 emissions from fossil fuels needed to go down by an annual 2-6 percent to keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit).
"Negotiations are going backward. All nations are trying to rewrite the Paris Agreement when it has already been written down, it's all clear. Now, in negotiations, people are trying to bring back the old things that have been talked about in the Paris Agreement. We don't want to go back. We want to go forward with it. We should get away from fossil fuels, but people tend to be going back in that direction by rewriting the Paris Agreement," Bainimarama said on the sidelines of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP25) in Madrid.
The prime minister added that Fiji was the only country in the South Pacific that had shown commitment to the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) the post-2020 climate actions outlined and communicated by each country in the Paris Agreement, aiming to reduce national emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change and expressed hope that more nations would commit to their NDCs.
"We need to do it for the people of the world, to make sure that we have come up with all the actions that could help us fight this climate change. If small nations start maybe rather big nations will follow. If we can do it, big nations can do it, but it requires political will," Bainimarama stated.
The politician also recalled the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage established by the UN COP in 2013 to address the issues associated with the effects of climate change, particularly in developing countries.
"We talked about loss and damage at past COPs, COP23, COP24, but we still haven't got anything out of it. We recommended that there will be loss and damage [mechanism] put in place. A Warsaw mechanism exists but it's just on paper ... We want that to be taken out of the paper and put into action. It's important not only for Fiji, it is important for the world, especially small islands and developing states," Bainimarama said.
The 25th UN conference on climate change began on December 2 in the Spanish capital of Madrid and will continue through Friday. The agenda is focused on the goals outlined in the Paris Agreement.
