Onus on Solomon Islands to tackle climate change
BY GEORGINA KEKEA
CLIMATE change and sea level rise, care and sustainable
harvesting of Pacific Ocean Resources were some of the issues that the Solomon
Islands government had re-emphasized during the recent meeting of Pacific
Island Leaders (PALM) in Japan.
Speaking to local media and dignitaries, Prime
Minister Rick Hou says these are some of the issues high on the agenda, during PALM8.
However Prime Minister Hou says they haven’t covered the
specifics from Solomon Islands point of view on climate change. He says under
the Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy (FOIP), the climate change issue will
be covered for the whole pacific rather than on specific countries.
“So it will be up to Solomon Islands now, we would be taking
this directly with Japan how we want to address our program in terms of
addressing the climate change and sea rise. For us we have to take it
separately from this Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy”.
Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy has become one of the
key concepts in Japan’s contemporary foreign policy. The main aim of Japan’s
FOIP is to promote connectivity between Asia, the Middle East and Africa.
PM Hou says there has been a misunderstanding on the issue
of bilateral and multilateral relationships between Japan and the Pacific
Island Countries but he said the Declaration reached at the end of PALM8 will
assist them in the way forward.
Solomon Islands had requested Japan and other development
partners take tangible steps to support efforts of Pacific Island Countries and
also acknowledges Japan’s support to Solomon Islands through the Green Climate
Fund. This is towards funding of the Tina Hydro Project.
ENDS///
Comments
Post a Comment