The 14
th
Pacific Islands Forum Communiqué on Climate ChangeWas Full of Callings but No Commitments from DevelopedCountry Partners
The 14
th
Pacific Islands Forum was held in Cairns, Australia on 5-6 August, 2009. In theForum Communiqué, an annex was dedicated to climate change. The annex was full of callings but has no where indicating the willingness of two developed country members’willingness in committing themselves positively in reducing their emissions to meet thecrying pleads of pacific small island states.
“We call upon world leaders to urgently increase their level of ambition and to give their negotiators fresh mandates to secure a truly effective global agreement.”
This is a meaningless statement; it will not help the negotiation process as long as thedeveloped countries are unwilling to commit any target of reduction.“
We call on states to reduce global emissions by at least 50 per cent below 1990 levels by 2050. We call on states to ensure that global emissions peak no later than 2020.”
Small island states have been insisting the developed countries in committing reduction.The leaders Pacific island states have been pressurized to change their positions. Now,they are not insisting the developed countries to make commitments but to “
call on allstates
”.“
We call on developed economies to take the lead by setting ambitious and robust mid-term emissions reduction targets – consistent with the agreed science and the directions embraced by the Major Economies Forum Meeting in July 2009.We also call on developed economies to strengthen the seriousness and credibility of their claims at Copenhagen by putting in place domestic policies and legislation now to achieve emission reductions targets.
“These are very weak statements, perhaps drafted by the host to confuse the world.Perhaps, the only credible part of these two paragraphs is the acknowledgement thatdeveloped countries are not serious and credible in the negotiation process and theseweaknesses need to be strengthened.Contrary to their strong positions on sharp reduction of emission by developed countries,the Pacific island states attending this Forum could only call upon developed countries totake the lead in setting ambitions and not a commitment of targets of reduction for thesecond commitment of Kyoto Protocol. What is a mid-term target? 2050 is the mid-termfor 21
st
century and 2500 is the mid-term of millennium. What is “
consistent with theagreed science”?
Only science that is agreed by developed countries that is acceptable?
“And we call on major developing economies to commit to slow and then reduce emissions growth over time, to nominate a peaking year for their emissions, and
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