NADI — Delegates from more than 50 countries gathered in Fiji on Wednesday for a climate conference, urging increased global efforts to reduce emissions ahead of the COP31 forum scheduled for November in Turkey.
Pacific nations, among the world's most vulnerable to climate change, are working to secure their priorities in global climate negotiations. A key objective is ensuring the target of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels is honored, despite United Nations projections indicating the threshold will soon be exceeded.
Fijian climate minister Lynda Tabuya addressed representatives, saying the world is "hurtling past the 1.5-degree temperature limit." She emphasized that an "overshoot is not a verdict we accept quietly."
"Keeping 1.5 alive is the primary legal obligation and duty we are here to uphold," Tabuya said, citing direct impacts already visible in Pacific nations, including rising tides reaching homes, damaged coral reefs, and relocated villages.
Dechen Tsering, director of the Regional Office of Asia Pacific at the UN Environment Programme, said exceeding 1.5 degrees and experiencing significant environmental damage is now unavoidable. She warned that "Pacific risks will outlast the temperature peak."
Tsering provided a specific projection, explaining that each additional 100 years above 1.5 degrees would commit the world to around 40 centimetres of additional median sea level rise by 2300 compared with a pathway without overshoot.
On Tuesday, a group of mostly Pacific Island leaders convened in Fiji after visiting Tuvalu. They adopted a declaration titled Taku Pakasoa, a Tuvaluan concept signifying strength in unity and collective action, which called for "deep, rapid and sustained emissions reductions."
Turkey's environment minister Murat Kurum, who holds the presidency of COP31, affirmed that limiting the overshoot of 1.5 degrees is the summit's clear common goal. "I believe in this wholeheartedly," Kurum said.
