October 26, 2017 – As part of its campaign to expose the half-truths and lies behind big-polluting countries’ climate sweet-talk Pacific Island Represent is asking the public to show their solidarity by sharing a selfie.
Thanks to an unbelievably successful crowd-funding effort, next month P.I. Reps Samu Kuridrani and Alisi Nacewa are travelling from Fiji to the UN climate meeting, COP23, in Bonn, Germany, where they will hold the climate hypocrites of the world to account.
“We are tired of hearing leaders say they are working towards a solution for climate change when their acts have the opposite effect. The Pacific COP is an opportunity to give a voice to our people and expose these double standards,” P.I. Rep spokesman Samu Kuridrani said.”
Decisions made at international climate meetings such as the COP have a direct impact on the lives of those on the frontlines of climate change in the Pacific. Despite the strong advocacy of Pacific leaders too often these decisions are made without enough consideration of the people most affected. Pacific Island Represent will make it impossible for global policymakers to ignore the people whose fate they wield undue influence over.
“We will take the faces of our people to Bonn to show the world that we in the Pacific are united in our call for meaningful climate action. We will tell world leaders to look us straight in the eye and be real with us about what they’re doing to fix this man-made problem,” Kuridrani said.
If leaders honour the commitments they made in Paris the world has a chance of avoiding catastrophic climate change but that needs to happen urgently, with a policy of no new fossil fuels at the centre of any climate mitigation strategy. No more climate sweet-talk. Paris means keeping warming at 1.5 degrees, which means no new fossil fuels.
“We are going to the COP to be the voice of the Pacific,” Nacewa said.
“Selfies from our fellow Pacific Islanders, and people around the world, will amplify our voices and show that there is global solidarity for us to hold leaders to their climate promises. We do not want any more empty platitudes.”
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