Prime Minister, Voreqe Bainimarama is calling on the support from all key stakeholders to work with him ahead of the COP 23 meeting.
Speaking at the Tourism Awards last night, Bainimarama said that his position as President of the COP 23 meeting comes with a lot of challenges.
The Prime added that he will certainly have the families of those who died in Winston first and foremost in his thoughts.
He said that he owe it to them and to every other Fijian to fight as hard as he can to get the global community to stick to the promises they made in Paris at the end of 2015.
” To reduce the carbon emissions that are causing global warming and the extreme weather events, rising seas and changing weather patterns that threaten our way of life and lives of billions of others around the world. Ladies and Gentlemen, I am very worried that the multilateral, decisive approach that we took in Paris to lower the global temperature is already being questioned. We must stick to the plan we reached in the Paris Agreement, not walk away from it.So as the ball is passed to me as COP president, I will be striving to hold the team together, to move the global agenda forward and eventually secure victory for all 7.5 billion people on the planet”.
Bainimarama is counting on the support from the tourism industry to assist him in the fight against climate change.
“I don’t need to tell anyone in this room how important this mission is. Those of you in the tourism industry know better than most that our very survival depends on it, not only in Fiji and the rest of the Pacific but in every vulnerable country. And I know that I can count on your support as I take the fight to the latest round of negotiations in Bonn in November and beyond”.