“We are on the front line of the adverse effects of climate change,” warn the leaders of these countries, many of which are located just above sea level.
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“We are on the front line of the adverse effects of climate change.” Pacific Island leaders called on Thursday, July 14, for global action “urgent and immediate” against climate change. They stressed that time was running out to avoid “worst case scenarios” who would see their countries, many of which sit just above sea level, engulfed or rendered uninhabitable by increasingly violent storms.
Meeting at the summit in the capital of Fiji, Suva, these leaders have called for “urgent, robust and transformative action” at all levels, national, regional and global. The 2022 edition of the Pacific Islands Forum was the biggest in years, as the climate emergency grows ever more pressing for low-lying islands.
The summit was also marked by geopolitical rivalries in the region, particularly between the United States and China. US Vice President Kamala Harris announced in a video address that Washington will open two new embassies in Tonga and Kiribati. For its part, China has made no secret of its ambitions in the region, deploying its public companies there and exercising checkbook diplomacy.