Lydia
Lewis, RNZ Pacific presenter/bulletin
editor
Caleb
Fotheringham, RNZ Pacific
journalist
Pacific nations head to the world’s biggest
climate talks making the familiar plea to keep global
warming under 1.5C to stay alive, as scientists say the
world will now certainly surpass the limit, at least
temporarily.
At the opening of the COP30 climate
summit in Belém Brazil, United Nations secretary-general
Antonio Guterres made the same call that Pacific nations
have for years.
“Let us be clear, the 1.5-degree limit
is a red line for humanity. It must be kept within reach and
scientists also tell us that this is still possible,”
Guterres said.
“If we act now at speed and scale, we
can make the overshoot as small, as short and as safe as
possible.”
The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO)
confirmed in its State of the Climate update that
greenhouse gas emissions, which are heating the planet, have
risen to a record high, with 2025 being on track to be the
second or third warmest year on record.
“It will be
virtually impossible to limit global warming to 1.5C in the
next few years without temporarily overshooting this
target,” WMO secretary-general Celeste Saulo
said.
“But the science is equally clear that it’s
still entirely possible and essential to bring temperatures
back down to 1.5C by the end of the century.”
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Pacific
Network on Globalisation (PANG) climate justice campaigner
India Logan-Riley said the world is now in “deeply unstable
territory” with the “very existence” of some Pacific
communities now at risk.
COP31 – a Pacific
COP?
As this COP starts, there is still uncertainty
over where COP31 in 2026 will be hosted.
Both
Australia – in conjunction with the Pacific – and Türkiye
have bid to host the event.
Australian Prime Minister
Anthony Albanese has written twice to his counterpart
looking for a compromise to break the
deadlock.
Palau’s President Surangel Whipps Jr, who is
in Belém, said it was important for Australia to be
successful in its bid.
“We’re here in Brazil and the
Amazon, and the focus next year needs to be a ‘Blue COP’, we
need to focus on the oceans,” Whipps said.
“One of the
things I always tell people is, in some countries they only
face droughts, or they may face a storm but in the Pacific
we suffer from all of them; sea-level rise, storms,
droughts, extreme heat.
“Other people, they can’t
relate or they think it may be unreal.”
One of those
people, United States President Donald Trump, told the UN
last month the climate crisis is “the greatest con job ever
perpetrated on the world”.
Palau has a particularly
close relationship with the US as one of the Compact of Free
Association (COFA) nations. The agreement gives the US
military access to Palau, which in return is given financial
assistance and for Palauans the right to work in the
US.
Whipps said Trump’s comments are unfortunate, and
more reason for COP to come to the Pacific.
“I would
invite President Trump to come to the Pacific. He should
visit Tuvalu, and he should visit Kiribati and Marshall
Islands.”
100% renewable Pacific
The Pacific
is aiming to be the first region in the world to be
completely reliant on renewable energy, a campaign which
being led by Whipps.
“Leading the energy transition
not only helps the planet by reducing our carbon footprint,
but also gives us energy independence, [it] allows us to
create jobs locally, and it keeps the money
circulating.”
Whipps wants Palau to be running
completely off renewable energy by 2032.
Meanwhile,
the UN emissions gap report shows the world is on track for
2.3C to 2.5C global warming, if nations stick to Nationally
Determined Contributions (NDCs).
However, it is an
improvement from last year’s reportm which predicted 2.6C to
2.8C of warming.
Pacific Islands Climate Action
Network (PICAN) policy advisor Sindra Sharma said the report
laid bare the fact that global ambition is nowhere near
where it needs to be.
“[The new forecast] still is
quite unacceptable for vulnerable communities and small
island states in particular, because we’ll feel the effects
the fastest with crossing anywhere beyond 1.5 even 1.51 it’s
going to have significant implications.
“We’ve always
had all the solutions to be able to do so and it’s just a
lack of political will. It’s a choice that’s being made
consistently and that choice is going to affect every single
one on this earth.”
Sharma is hopeful there will be
positive outcomes at this year’s COP, despite ongoing
geopolitical tensions, which are in part driven by it being
hosted close to the Amazon Rainforest – often referred to as
the lungs of the earth – and marking 10 years since the
Paris Agreement was signed.
It is also the first time
Pacific nations have confirmation from the world’s top court
that failing to protect people from the effects of climate
change could violate international law.
“The advisory
opinion that we have now is the first time that we’re going
into COP with this kind of legal clarity and the legal
clarity is telling us that there’s due diligence in terms of
limiting warming to
1.5C.”
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