Voices from the Pacific
Nic Mclennan the journalist who spoke to us in June, continues to keep us up to date of activities relating to the plight of the Pacific Islanders.
Kiribati President previews his UN speech on climate
Pacific Beat, Radio Australia Fri Sep 25, 2009
Presentations by world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly are well underway, with Kiribati President Anote Tong to give his presentation at the UN on Friday New York Time. In a major speech to the United Nations yesterday, Australia's Prime Minister Kevin Rudd described the immediate threats to Pacific states from climate change to bolster the case for the world to rise above national interest and reach a new global climate change deal. Mr Rudd told the meeting of the General Assembly in New York that as chair of the Pacific Islands Forum, he knows that time is already running out for some of the Pacific Island states. President Tong describes to Radio Australia the signs of climate change he's been seeing.
http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/pacbeat/stories/200909/s2696143.htm
or read transcript
Presenter: Geraldine Coutts
Speaker: Anote Tong, President of Kiribati
TONG: Well just before coming out during parliament session I was asked many, many questions, much of them requests for sea defenses to be built in areas which have been eroded, touching on the livelihood, food crops, and some villages have had to be relocated. And this has been happening and it continues to be happening. And so we're getting an inundation of requests. Of course we cannot, there's no way we would have the resources to deal with all of this.
COUTTS: But what about water and things like that, and when you say you're relocating families where are they going to?
TONG: We're just moving them away from closer to the shoreline. Where there are villages which are no longer there so they had to move further up, and further up is just maybe another metre up from sea level. So you will understand Kiribati is made up of atolls averaging about two metres above sea level, and so there is very little space where we can move to locate them.
COUTTS: And what are you noticing on a day to day basis? I know that some years ago now there was an anecdotal survey conducted in Kiribati where people just talked about what they thought, and some people have got down to having to go much further out to catch their fish or having to wear thongs or shoes now because the earth is just too hot now to walk around in bare feet. Is it that kind of thing that your people are now looking at and experiencing on a day to day basis?
TONG: Well you really have to look at this over a period of time, and when I say this because I've been seeing changes in my short lifetime things that have happened we never attributed this to climate change, but it is the case that climate is changing and according to the science that is what is being projected, then obviously something is responsible for the change. And as I say in my lifetime I've seen the change. Over the years virtually on a yearly basis you see the change, and it is putting pressure on people, and people are putting pressure on government to do something about it.
COUTTS: And so that's you.
TONG: We don't have the resources to do all of it.
COUTTS: Well what kind of resources do you need?
TONG: Well we just need to be able to build up the islands, we need in some cases just to provide sea defenses so the seawater does not go into our taro plots, the taro plots are usually low-lying and so once there is seawater intrusion it affects the food crops. In some cases it does affect the drinking water because we grew up drinking water from the underground water lakes.
COUTTS: Well Mr Tong, Kiribati President, you are in New York and you're going to give your presentation to the UN tomorrow. What will you be saying?
TONG: I'll be quite frank because I've been saying these things over the last few years. But I must say that I'm much more hardened now than I was say four or five years ago when nobody was listening. I will be giving a very clear message and of course the support that we're getting, particularly from our neighbours and of course your Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has been very much a strong advocate of this, and we welcome this.
COUTTS: So what is the hardening of your attitude, what kinds of things will you actually say?
TONG: Because there is a change, I think there is greater sense of optimism if anything. I think there is, I sense a strong political commitment to doing something to come to a conclusion at Copenhagen, and I think there is a realisation of the more urgent case for the most vulnerable. I think this is something we've been asking.
COUTTS: Now Mr Tong what were you thinking or what are your thoughts from the outcome of this week's Oasis meeting? What needs to be done to get a good result for not just Kiribati, but the Pacific states on climate change for the talks in Copenhagen later this year?
TONG: Yes well there's no doubt I think all the countries of the world will be affected by climate change in one form or another, but I think the threat level will be different, the timing will be different, there are those whose very survival is on the line over the next 20-30 years, and of course the projections keep getting worse, they don't improve they get worse. And so the timeline is getting short. And so whilst everybody will be affected, there will be those that will be affected very seriously and very immediately, and so I think there has to be a focus on that.
COUTTS: But was there a divided front or were people united in the outcome of the Oasis meeting and what they will present to Copenhagen?
TONG: Well there was a complete union on this. I think we all agree that we will be affected and there was also I must say agreement that for those for which the problem is more urgent we should focus on that. We have time to deal with the others later, but I think I'm getting a strong message that the urgency should be given to those countries which are most vulnerable.
COUTTS: Mr Tong do you think that developing nations like Kiribati should actually be making their own presentations and getting all the other groups together rather than allowing the larger nations have most of the say?
TONG: I think we're always should have the opportunity to put forward our case because nobody truly understands the situation of each different country. And of course any problem is urgent for any countries, but I think you need to put all of these problems together in a list so that you can have a sense of what is priority and what isn't. And so it is important and I've always tried to take this opportunity to put forward the case. But as I'm saying the people are hearing more than they were hearing some years back, but I think the next question is what are they prepared to do.