Nine Pacific islands threatened by the adverse effects of climate change expressed their concern about the lack of ambition shown by developed nations on climate crisis and signed the Nadi Bay Declaration, urging for immediate action on GHG emissions, including shipping.
In a strongly worded statement issued at the conclusion of Pacific Islands development forum in Fiji, the Pacific leaders highlighted how the lack of action globally undermines safety of Pacific Small Island Developing States (PSIDS):
The science warns of the real possibility that coral atoll nations could become uninhabitable as early as 2030. By 2100, the coral atoll nations of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu, Kiribati, Tokelau and the Maldives and many SIDS could be submerged,
…the statement reads.
As such, they emphasized the important relationship between the ocean and climate change in terms of management of carbon, the absorption of heat and regulation of global climate system.
With respect to shipping, the Pacific leaders recognized the ambitions of the Tony de Brum Declaration that targets a reduction of GHG emissions from the shipping sector and “encouraged all countries to support efforts aimed at decarbonizing the transport sector, particularly the maritime sector, and seek Pacific partnerships working to advance these efforts.”
Last week Australia’s foreign affairs minister, Marise Payne, rejected calls from Pacific states for Australia to do more to combat climate change, telling the ABC they “should be pleased” that it was meeting the target it set at the 2015 Paris Agreement meeting.
In April 2018, IMO members states at MEPC 72 adopted the so-called GHG initial strategy, envisaging, for the first time, a reduction in total GHG emissions from global shipping by at least 50% by 2050 compared to 2008. This was considered as a landmark for the industry, which seeks to align with the Paris Agreement goals.