UN General Assembly
2018

The Pacific region cannot afford to see the Paris Agreement on Climate Change relegated to the archives of the United Nations. We therefore call for the Paris Agreement’s work programme to be completed and made operational at the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Katowice, Poland. Climate change threatens the sustainability of the environment, sustainable development and people’s inalienable rights, both now and in the future. It represents a real danger to the survival of future generations and to low-lying countries in the Pacific. The current pledges being made through nationally determined contributions are simply not enough to reverse climate change. The parties to the Paris Agreement must intensify their ambitions to reach the agreed target limit of no more than 1.5° C. For vulnerable countries, especially in our region, a failure to do so would mean even greater exposure to more frequent natural disasters.