November 11, 2022
Pacific sounds alarm at climate summit
The climate change spokesman for the Iwi Chairs Forum says Pacific nations at COP27 are challenging the failure by larger states to show real commitment to reducing carbon emissions.
Mike Smith is at the United Nations climate change summit in Egypt – where Tuvalu Tuvalu Prime Minister Kausea Natano this week called for a non-proliferation treaty that stops further production of fossil fuels.
Mike Smith says Tuvalu is being hit by a double-whammy of an extreme drought, and an existential threat from rising sea levels
“It’s a tragedy. These islands in the Pacific have been occupied for over 70,000 years since our tupuna first came out and started settling the Pacific – including Aotearoa. And so 70,000 years is a long time and we’re starting to see the beginning of the end for a lot of those whanau and a lot of that whenua,” he says.
Mr Smith says extreme weather event around the world are evidence activists weren’t scare-mongering in their dire warnings for the planet’s future.