The Pacific region is on the front line of climate change. Its low-lying islands risk being swamped by rising sea levels and their inhabitants forced to emigrate. In June, exceptionally high tides coupled with storm surges flooded parts of the Marshall Islands capital, Majuro. The rising waters topped the city sea walls. Some islanders were forced to evacuate their homes and a state of disaster was declared.
For the Pacific people, weather extremes are not about a distant future, they have become the new normal. Heatwaves, floods, droughts and rising oceans are the new reality of an ever-warming world. Scientists have been warning for years that we will have to deal with more severe, more changeable, more unpredictable weather.
Europe and the Pacific region must work together to fight climate change. This will be my main priority during my participation in the Pacific Islands Forum, being held early this month in the Marshall Islands.
And we have showed what our joint efforts can achieve. At the UN climate conference in Durban in 2011, Europe and the Pacific region got all countries to agree that we need a new global climate deal by 2015, as well as a process to raise the level of global ambition also in the shorter terms before 2020.
Europe will continue to assist the Pacific region in its efforts to adapt to the changing climate. Europe is the world's leading provider of climate finance and, despite severe economic constraints, we succeeded in delivering just over 7.3 billion ($12.4 billion) in "fast start" funding to the most vulnerable developing countries in 2010-2012, slightly beating our own pledge.
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A recently published paper by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) has focused on the under-researched topic of how climate change impacts may affect violence in South and Southeast Asia. Titled “Climate change and violent conflict: Sparse evidence from South Asia and South East Asia”, the report highlights how little work has been done in looking at climate change and its possible impact on security in the most densely populated regions on the planet.
Every day humanitarian aid workers help millions of people around the world, regardless of who they are and where they are. With expert knowledge and support, humanitarian workers are well placed to create a better environment for the people that they serve as well as for themselves.
The pro-coal position of Poland’s energy ministry has thrown sand into the country’s climate diplomacy as COP24 president-designate Michał Kurtyka intensifies his diplomatic tour ahead of the United Nation’s annual climate meeting later this year in Katowice.
As governments take stock of the adequacy of the Paris Agreement, willingness to raise the level of ambition will depend significantly on confidence that a variety of promises are being kept. Many of these relate to fundamental commitments around international solidarity. A solidarity of which we are in sore need today, on far too many fronts.