Police Minister Paula Piukala urges urgent action on climate-driven security risks.
The Minister for Police, the Hon Paula Piveni Piukala, has told the Pacific Regional and National Security Conference climate change poses the “greatest security challenge” to the region.
Speaking at the Suva gathering on 15 July, Piukala highlighted the region’s negligible global emissions, saying, “If we add our region together, it’s not even close to one per cent contribution to carbon emissions, yet we are forced to change our lifestyle, change our policy,”
“We in the Pacific all experience the impact of climate change, but we have nothing to do with the climate change. Absolutely nothing. We are an innocent victim of this disaster,” Piukala added.
The high-level panel, which included Fiji’s Deputy PM Professor Biman Prasad, Tuvalu’s Climate Change Minister Dr Maina Talia, and Cook Islands Foreign Minister Tingika Elikana, urged immediate reform of climate finance and enhanced regional collaboration.
Prasad warned Pacific nations face a “very narrow window to adapt” and said “the world was failing the Pacific states on climate finance.”
Background discussions focused on the upcoming International Court of Justice advisory opinion on climate change, expected on 23 July.
The 3-day conference ended yesterday under the Boe Declaration’s expanded security agenda, which recognises climate change as a core threat.
