WELLINGTON, New Zealand — UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Wednesday that he’s traveling to three South Pacific island nations to see the effects of climate change firsthand.

Speaking in Fiji, the UN leader said he wanted to learn about the work being undertaken by island communities to bolster resilience. He said the Pacific needs stronger international support because climate change is taking place faster than efforts to address it.

“The last four years were the hottest on record. The loss of ice in Greenland and Antarctica is accelerating, meaning that sea levels will rise a full meter (over 3 feet) by 2100 if nothing is done to avoid it,” Guterres said.

“Here in the Pacific, sea-level rise in some countries is four times greater than the global average and is an existential threat to some island states.”

Guterres said island nations should speak out.

“As we look ahead, your voices will remain crucial in global negotiations,” he said. “Your experiences underscore the urgency of the threat and the Pacific has a unique moral authority to speak out. It is time for the world to listen.”

Guterres made the comments at a meeting with officials from the Pacific Islands Forum in Suva, Fiji’s capital.

He also plans to visit the island nations of Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

His trip comes ahead of the Climate Action Summit that he plans to convene in September in New York. </s> SUVA: UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Wednesday (May 15) the Pacific possesses "a unique moral authority" to demand global action on climate change because its people are bearing the brunt of the problem.

Visiting Fiji as part of a South Pacific tour to highlight the dangers of global warming, Guterres said the region was on the front line of climate change.

"Here in the Pacific, sea-level rise in some countries is four times greater than the global average and is an existential threat to some island states," he said.

He said this was despite the fact that the Pacific islands contributed little to global warming and had been among the first nations to minimise their greenhouse gas emissions.

"Your experiences underscore the urgency of the threat," he said. "The Pacific has a unique moral authority to speak out - it is time for the world to listen."

Guterres' visit - which also includes New Zealand, Tuvalu and Vanuatu - will see the UN chief meet locals whose lives have been upended by cyclones, flooding and other extreme weather events linked to climate change.

It comes ahead of the Climate Action Summit in September in New York, billed as a last chance to prevent irreversible climate change.

Members of the Pacific Islands Forum regional grouping commended Guterres for travelling to see "the everyday reality of climate change".

They sent a strong message to the New York conference, warning "we are facing an unprecedented global catastrophe for our blue planet".

"Platitudes and repackaged commitments cannot be the substance of our deliberations," they said in a statement.

"We need transformational change at scale, and courageous leaders prepared to deliver it."

Guterres will address the Fiji parliament on Thursday. </s> The UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has praised Fiji as a strong committed partner in peacekeeping and for taking a leading role in the battle against climate change.

Photo: Supplied

Mr Guterres was speaking after formal talks with the Fijian prime minister Frank Bainimarama this morning.

Mr Guterres said it needs to be recognised the battle is not being won for the commitments made in Paris to be respected and there needs to be much stronger political will to rescue the planet.

There was nowhere better than the Pacific to feel the moral duty to rally the international community, he said.

"The prime minister was telling me in the meeting we just had, that climate change corresponds to the battle of our lives from the point of view of Fiji and the Pacific.

"As secretary general of the United Nations , I have many battles but I have no doubt to say that as a grandfather this is also the battle of my life."

Mr Guterres side-stepped a reporter's question on whether human rights issues were discussed with the Fijian prime minister, saying Fiji's progress is being discussed during the Universal Periodic Review process at the UN Human Rights Council.

Guterres told Pacific running out of time for climate action

Earlier, Pacific Island leaders asked the UN Secretary General to tell the world their region is running out of time.

At a meeting yesterday in Fiji, leaders from countries in the Pacific Islands Forum said climate change was the single greatest threat to their region.

Photo: United Nations in the Pacific

In a statement, the leaders welcomed Mr Guterres to witness the everyday reality of climate change and to drive momentum in the lead up to his Climate Action Summit in September.

"After meeting today, we will return to our island homes. Some of us will find our villages inundated by waves and our homes and public infrastructure wrecked by cyclones. Our coral reefs are dying, our food is disappearing, and we fear for the safety of our loved ones, who are being injured and even killed by some of the most ferocious of cyclones and other extreme weather events ever witnessed in our region," the statement said.

"Let us together seize the opportunity of the UNSG's Climate Action Summit to make the changes we need to reverse climate change."

They said all countries attending the summit must agree to reduce global emissions, and to mitigation and adaptation support for countries that need it.

Without agreement, the leaders said people of the Pacific will continue to lose their homes, their ways of life and their livelihoods.

"To the major polluters - our today in the Pacific is undoubtedly your tomorrow.

"Sea level rise in Tuvalu is sea level rise in New York, though one might go under before the other."

Antonio Guterres, acknowledged the message from Pacific leaders saying he stood with them in calling for climate action.

"The Pacific has a unique moral authority to speak out. It is time for the world to listen," he said. </s> The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is preparing to launch a major push for progress on climate change with a historic visit to the Pacific.

The UN chief is currently in New Zealand and will later today head to Fiji where he'll meet with Pacific island leaders in Suva for the first time.

Antonio Guterres has described the Pacific as the front line of climate change with rising sea levels threatening the very existence of the small island nations. </s> Governments around the world must introduce carbon taxes, halt plans for new coal plants and accelerate the closure of existing ones if damage to the Pacific from climate change is to be limited, the UN secretary general has told Pacific leaders on his first visit to the region.

Antonio Guterres met leaders of Pacific countries in Fiji, on a trip that will also see him visit Vanuatu, considered one of the countries most vulnerable to natural disasters due to climate change, and Tuvalu, which is at risk of sinking under rising waters.

Speaking after meetings in Suva on Wednesday, Guterres acknowledged the region was “on the frontline of climate change” and its people were “important allies in the fight against it”.

“Here in the Pacific, sea-level rise in some countries is four times greater than the global average and is an existential threat to some island states,” he said.

“My messages to governments around the world from the Pacific are clear: first, shift taxes from salaries to carbon. Tax pollution, not people. Second, stop subsidising fossil fuels. Taxpayer money should not be used to boost hurricanes, spread drought and heatwaves, melt glaciers, and bleach corals. Third, stop building new coal plants by 2020.”

His comments came in the closing days of the Australian election campaign, where climate action is a key issue.

Leaders of the Pacific Islands Forum told Guterres they were “running out of time” and asked him to share a message of urgency with the world, saying they were facing “an unprecedented global catastrophe”.

“The blue Pacific – our great ocean continent, our thousands of islands, our strong and resilient people – is running out of time,” said forum leaders in a statement.

“All countries, with no caveats, must agree to take decisive and transformative action to reduce global emissions ... If we do not, we will lose. We will lose our homes, our ways of life, our wellbeing and our livelihoods. We know this because we are experiencing loss already.”

Guterres said climate change particularly affected women, offering the example of the effect of salinisation of food crops on pregnant women and newborn health, and said women needed to be involved in all decisions related to climate change.

“There can be no successful response to a changing climate without also changing mindsets about the role of women in prevention and response,” he said.

Dr Tess Newton Cain, a Pacific analyst and visiting fellow at the Australian National University, said this message was particularly important given there was only one national Pacific leader who was a woman – Hilda Heine, president of the Marshall Islands.

She also said Guterres’ visit was very timely in light of the climate summit in September and that Pacific voices should be key in shaping the agenda.

“What I was particularly struck by was that he was at pains to flag very clearly that not only are Pacific countries on the frontlines when it comes to being victims of climate change impacts but more importantly they’re on the frontline when it comes to resilience and innovation and global leadership,” she said.

“These are small countries that have really not allowed themselves to be seen as hapless victims but they have grasped opportunities to take things forward and lead by example, it’s very pleasing that the UN secretary general has acknowledged that.” </s> WELLINGTON: Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has kicked off a major United Nations push for progress on what he calls the defining issue of our time: climate change.

Guterres travelled to New Zealand on Sunday, from where he is set to visit several Pacific islands where rising sea levels are threatening the very existence of those small countries.

The stepped-up diplomacy will culminate with a climate action summit at the UN in September, an event billed as the last chance to prevent irreversible climate change, three years after the Paris agreement went into force.

"We are seeing everywhere a clear demonstration that we are not on track to achieve the objectives defined in the Paris agreement," Guterres said on the failure to limit rises to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial revolution levels.

In a strong message for action on climate change, Guterres said international political resolve was fading and it was the small island nations that were "really in the front line" and would suffer most.

In Fiji, Tuvalu and Vanuatu, Guterres will meet with families whose lives have been upended by cyclones, flooding and other extreme weather events.

Pacific island countries face an especially dire risk from climate change because of sea level rise.

In some cases, low-lying countries could disappear completely. Fiji is working to build a coalition of more than 90 countries from the Caribbean, Africa and Asia facing the climate crisis.

"We hope that the secretary-general will draw far more inspiration from his first visit to go further, faster and deeper with the climate summit," Fiji's UN Ambassador Satyendra Prasad told AFP.

"We are very hopeful that the climate summit will mark a turning point.

" Guterres on Sunday praised New Zealand's "extremely important" leadership on climate change -- Wellington has introduced legislation to become carbon neutral by 2050 -- but warned that international political resolve was fading.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, speaking at the joint press conference in Auckland, called climate change "the biggest challenge" facing the global community and said it would be "gross negligence" to avoid the issue.

But the UN push on climate change is shaping up amid geopolitical shifts: the United States under Donald Trump has decided to pull out of the Paris agreement to combat global warming, giving China more space to assert its views.

"The Trump administration's disdain for climate diplomacy has left China looking like the main guarantor of the Paris agreement," said Richard Gowan, UN director for the International Crisis Group.

"While China is increasingly active across the UN, other states are suspicious of its stances on human rights and development.

But it is the indispensable power in climate talks now.

" Trump announced in 2017 that the United States would exit the Paris agreement, but under the terms of the deal, the withdrawal will only become effective in 2020.

The US administration is not taking part in summit preparations but has not said it will skip the event, according to UN officials.

Guterres' mission may also be further complicated by Trump's nomination of Kelly Knight Craft as UN ambassador.

Craft, who is married to a major coal magnate, raised eyebrows for declaring that she believed "both sides" of climate science, indicating she may well be out of sync with the UN on the issue.

Guterres has told leaders to bring plans, not speeches, to the summit to be held in New York on September 23 during the annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations.

The summit is seen as critical because of US resistance to discuss climate change at other forums including the G7 and G20, and again last week at a meeting of the Arctic Council in Finland.

"What people are looking for is countries to commit to major ambition increases in 2025 and 2030 at the summit or in 2020," said Nick Mabey, head of the E3G climate think tank.

This should include legally binding targets for countries to phase out coal, become climate neutral and invest in climate resilience, especially for the poorest countries, he added.

A string of apocalyptic reports on the state of the planet is bringing home the need for concrete steps. One million species are on the brink of extinction.

Carbon dioxide emissions continue to rise, pushing targets from the Paris accord further out of reach.

UN climate envoy Luis Alfonso de Alba told AFP on Friday that he was optimistic about prospects for a breakthrough on climate, saying the dire predictions were having a galvanising effect.

"The situation worldwide is quite different from what it was five to 10 years ago. Five to 10 years ago, countries were looking at their neighbours before acting," he said.

Today, everybody has full conscience of the urgency to act, and they are not going to wait for their neighbours to act. </s> Visiting Fiji for the first time as Secretary-General, António Guterres outlined two “fundamental challenges” facing leaders attending the Pacific Islands Forum on Thursday, namely climate change and the world’s rising ocean, which threatens to submerge low-lying nations.

“The Pacific region is on the frontline of climate change”, he said. “That means you are also our important allies in the fight against it”.

The UN chief said that he was there “to see the region’s climate pressures firsthand, and to learn about the work being undertaken by communities here in Fiji and elsewhere to bolster resilience”.

Noting that the last four years were the hottest on record, Mr. Guterres highlighted recent ice losses in Greenland and Antarctica, saying that “sea levels will rise a full meter by 2100”.

In the Pacific specifically, he said that sea-levels are set to rise in some countries four times above the global average, posing “an existential threat to some island States”.

Providing “ample evidence of the region’s vulnerability” the UN chief cited recent damage caused by Tropical Cyclones Gita, Josie and Keni as well as by volcanic eruptions and earthquakes and other extreme weather events in the region.

“Climate change will further worsen the risks”, he spelled out, noting that the salinization of water and crops is endangering food security and escalating the impact on public health.

He maintained that climate change also brings “clear dangers” for international peace and security, pointing to the 2018 Boe Declaration, which reaffirms climate change as the single greatest threat to the wellbeing of the Pacific.

Mr. Guterres said that he recently appointed a task force to coordinate UN initiatives to address these challenges.

“Military strategists see clearly the possibility of climate impacts increasing tensions over resources and mass movements of people”, he continued. “As coastal areas or degraded inland areas become uninhabitable, people will seek safety and better lives elsewhere”.

Recalling that more than 24 million people in 118 countries and territories were displaced by natural disasters in 2016, he told Pacific leaders their islands and communities “are in the forefront of global climate negotiations”.

He vowed the UN’s strong commitment “to supporting your response to climate change and reversing the negative trends that have put your cultures and very existence at risk”.

Climate change also threatens the well-being of the world’s ocean and seas, which are critical to the economies and traditions of the Pacific.

“Oceans are warming and becoming more acidic, causing coral bleaching and reducing biodiversity” the UN chief told the Forum, stating that global warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius would cause “severe damage to tropical reefs”.

Moreover, if warming reached two degrees Celsius or more, “it would be catastrophic for marine life and humans alike” he said. “Food security would decline. Economic growth would suffer”.

But seas and marine life are also under attack from other directions. Mr. Guterres painted a picture of overfishing; underwater deserts in effect, with no oxygen; seas filled with poison and trash, and species becoming extinct within decades.

“Every year, more than eight million tonnes of harmful plastic waste end up in the ocean” he said. “According to one recent study, plastic could outweigh fish in our seas by 2050”.

While many countries are finally rejecting single-use plastic, the UN chief underscored that “we must do even more” to address the unsustainable levels of stress on marine and coastal ecosystems.

He commended Pacific countries for ensuring the adoption of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14 to conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development, saying that his Special Envoy for the Ocean, Fiji’s Peter Thomson, is promoting the SDGs and the outcomes of the UN Ocean Conference.

“To address the intertwined challenges of climate change and ocean health, we need smart and far-reaching steps” that require action aligned with the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda, which makes full use of tools, such as the Convention on the Law of the Sea, according to the UN chief.

“We have the blueprints, frameworks and plans” he stated. “What we need is urgency, will and ambition”.

Mr. Guterres spoke of his Climate Action Summit in September at UN Headquarters, as an opportunity “to scale up” pledges to halt emission increases 2020, and “dramatically reduce” them to net-zero emissions by mid-century.

He also stressed the importance of gender diversity in decision making as climate change has impacts on women, citing as an example that food salinization affects the health of pregnant women and newborns.

Come September, Mr. Guterres said that sustainable development will be centre-stage as SDG progress will be reviewed and finance mobilization discussed.

He lauded Pacific countries’ commitment to promote their vision of a “Blue Continent” and maintained that their voices “remain crucial in global negotiations”.

“The Pacific has a unique moral authority to speak out” he said. “It is time for the world to listen”. </s> WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Sunday that the political will to fight climate change seems to be fading at the same time as things are getting worse for those feeling…

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Sunday that the political will to fight climate change seems to be fading at the same time as things are getting worse for those feeling the effects.

Guterres made the comments after arriving in New Zealand, where he spoke to media alongside Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in Auckland. Guterres plans to spend three days in New Zealand as part of a trip to the South Pacific to highlight the problems of climate change.

In Christchurch, he will also meet with Muslim leaders following the March 15 slaughter of 51 worshippers by a gunman who attacked two mosques during Friday prayers.

Guterres said he usually visits a Muslim country during the holy month of Ramadan but this year decided to visit Muslims in New Zealand as a tribute to their courage and resilience after the attack.

He said he admired the solidarity New Zealand showed after the attack, and praised Ardern for helping implement new gun control laws and for urging other world leaders and tech companies to find a way to prevent acts of extremism from being shown online, after the gunman livestreamed his attack on Facebook.

Ardern this week plans to travel to Paris, where she and French President Emmanuel Macron will host a meeting seeking to eliminate such acts from being shown online.

Guterres said countries were not living up to their commitments under the 2016 Paris Agreement to keep the global temperature rise to below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

“We are not on track to achieve the objectives defined in the Paris Agreement,” Guterres said. “And the paradox is that as things are getting worse on the ground, political will seems to be fading.”

He commended Ardern on last week introducing an ambitious bill that aims to make New Zealand mostly carbon neutral by 2050 while giving some leeway to farmers. The bill is expected to come to a final vote in Parliament later this year.

Guterres said Pacific Island nations are on the front line of climate change.

“We cannot allow for runaway climate change,” he said. “We need to protect the lives of our people and we need to protect our planet.”

Guterres also plans to visit the island nations of Fiji, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. In Fiji, he will meet with leaders and senior government officials from the Pacific Islands Forum. His trip comes ahead of the Climate Action Summit that he plans to convene in September in New York.

Copyright © 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed. </s> Ngāi Tahu hosted United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in his last meeting in Aotearoa before he heads to the Pacific Islands for further UN discussions.

The iwi will put forward what they're doing to combat climate change in the hope that ideas and initiatives may be taken up by the UN.

Ngāi Tahu spent almost an hour addressing one of the most influential leaders in the world. They gave insight into their environmental objectives and protections.

"Our climate change strategy requires our commercial entities to develop climate change action plans," says Lisa...

Addressing climate change was the main reason Guterres came to this part of the world. He has seen value in his venturing to New Zealand.

"We are facing a dramatic challenge and I must confess that I have been more strongly occupied by energy transformation, mobility transformation, industrial transformation that then agriculture transformation. So this was very enlightening for me," he says.

Climate Change Minister James Shaw sees great value in what Ngāi Tahu are doing in this space, and believes it will be of value for the UN to take notice.

"I think Ngai Tahu is one of the leading organisations in the country and a great role model not just for other iwi, but organisations across Aotearoa New Zealand. The fact is underlining their strategy, is a 500 year strategic plan," says Shaw.

Antonio Guterres' time here is New Zealand has come to a close. The question remains, will there be some tangible impact from his three days in the country.

Guterres will now go to the Pacific Islands, were climate change will be the main issue discussed.
United Nations Secretary General António Guterres says Pacific island nations are "running out of time" in regards to climate change and global warming effects.