SUVA, May 14 (Xinhua) -- Fijian Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama on Tuesday urged the world's major economies to strengthen their finance investments to deal with climate change.
"All of these efforts - as part of larger agendas for climate adaptation - cannot be funded by the Pacific alone. We need major economies to strengthen their climate finance investments, including their replenishment of Adaptation and Green Climate Funds," Bainimarama said at the end of the third Climate Action Pacific Partnership (CAPP) conference in Suva, capital of Fiji.
Those funds must support developing countries both in meeting their mitigation targets and in urgently building resilience to the climate impacts already lapping at their doorsteps, he said.
The prime minister said the situation they face is more severe than ever, and the world's current response is woefully insufficient.
"It is the defining crisis of our time. And if we do not take action, that crisis will soon escalate into chaos that will consume the entire world," the prime minister said.
According to the prime minister, Fiji, with Marshall Islands, Samoa, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu, have agreed to work together to reduce fossil fuel use in their marine transportation by up to 40 percent by 2030 and 100 percent by 2050.
"This demands a transformation of our maritime sectors which will require new kinds of financial partnerships with bilateral and multilateral assistance and, potentially, a regional blue shipping bond," he said.
It is reported that by 2050, Fiji's annual losses due to extreme weather events could reach 6.5 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) because of the impact of climate change, with more than 32,000 people pushed into hardship every year.
