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MAJURO, August 12, 2024 (TE AO MAORI NEWS) – The Marshall Islands will receive US$6.2 million ($4 million) from the Aotearoa Foreign Minister to help combat climate change as rising sea levels and stronger typhoons put the island nation at greater risk.
“New Zealand is committed to addressing the challenges of the ‘Blue Continent’, including those of the Marshall Islands. That is why we are stepping up our investment to support the Marshall Islands’ recovery and prosperity,” Foreign Minister Winston Peters said during a visit to the Marshall Islands capital, Majuro.
“The Marshall Islands, a nation of low-lying atolls and islands, is on the front lines of natural disasters and the impacts of climate change, and our support reflects that,” Peters said.
Since 1993, sea levels around the Marshall Islands have been rising more than twice as fast as the rest of the world, about a third of a centimetre a year, and there are fears that sea levels will rise by more than a metre by 2100, rendering much of the country uninhabitable.
The delegation, the first by Peters and the New Zealand government to the Marshall Islands in 17 years, included Labour Party Pacific Caucus Chair Jenny Salesa, Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee (FADTC) Chair Tim van de Molen and FADTC member Teanau Tuiono.
The delegation’s agenda included meetings with President Hilda Heine, Assistant Minister Bleitty Lakjohn, Foreign Minister Kalani Kaneko, and other ministers and parliamentarians to discuss shared priorities and perspectives on regional issues.
As the impacts of climate change intensify in the Pacific, a climate activist is calling for major multinational efforts to build mechanisms and institutions that meet the needs of Pacific people.
Vishal Prasad, director of the Pacific Island Student Climate Action Movement, said more needed to be done to address the loss and damage faced by vulnerable communities in the Pacific.
“Funding is needed to address the losses and damages that communities are experiencing. These losses and damages go beyond adaptation.”
That includes losses of climate, culture, tradition, identity and those associated with people’s sense of place and belonging, he said.
“How do we address these challenges with climate finance so that we have a fit-for-purpose mechanism that looks at it and can understand and respond to different country situations?
“With finance, we can meet all of these challenges and rapidly scale up financing for mitigation, adaptation and loss and damage in all countries.”
The group has been calling on the ICJ to provide an advisory opinion on climate change and human rights since 2019.
Prasad said the impacts of climate change in the Pacific region are severe, with different countries feeling the impacts in different ways.
“In Fiji, for example, some villages have been relocated or re-identified due to rising sea levels.”
“The relocation has already started, so it’s not just a matter of the future,” he said… PACNEWS
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