SPREP Statement made at COP28

Mr Sefanaia Nawadra, the Director-General of the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) presented the below statement before the resumed high-level segment of the 28th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Dubai of the United Arab Emirates on 9 December.

“The Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, President of COP 28, Leaders and Excellencies. 

I thank the United Arab Emirates for your wonderful hospitality and acknowledge the tireless work of the Executive Secretary and your team. 

SPREP is the Pacific’s inter-governmental organisation established by Pacific Island Governments 30 years ago and charged with protecting and managing the environment and natural resources of the Pacific increasingly from the impacts of climate change. 

Our Members are at the forefront of climate change, those States where climate change impacts are an existential threat so much so that Pacific Leaders have declared our region under a State of Climate Emergency! 

Our Members, the Pacific Small Island Developing States, have again come to COP 28 with a loud and clear clarion call for the world to hear – that we need to keep within 1.5 to stay alive. We have all committed to cutting emissions and must do so! 

The IPCC, the Peak Science body of the convention, states that we can still limit warming below 1.5°C provided global greenhouse gas emissions peak before 2025 and be halved by 2030. This is the hope we are holding on to and calling for all to make a reality. 
Our hope and call for COP 28 is: 

• We put in place a Global Stocktake that facilitates the course correction necessary for keeping below the 1.5C limit. 
• - This must include a phase out of fossil fuels and an end to fossil fuel subsidies in line with the best available science and the principles and provisions of the Paris Agreement. 
• - We need to triple global renewable energy capacity by 2030. 
• - Developed countries must deliver on their commitment to the $100B Climate Financing goal as financing remains inadequate. 
• - The new collective quantified goal must respond to the heavy burden that we are saddled with as we strive to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. The goal-setting process must pivot to a deliberative negotiation process to secure an outcome at COP29 that is both fair and just and upholds the special circumstances of SIDS, mandated under the Convention. 
• - The Ocean is the world’s largest sink and absorbs a third of global GHG emissions. The Pacific Ocean is the largest and only sustainably managed tuna fisheries in the world, vital to global food security and the lifeblood of our island nation economies, but it is at risk from climate change. 
• - It is ironic, verging on the ridiculous that there continues to be resistance to the formal inclusion of platforms to discuss the oceans nexus within the Convention. We continue to call for all relevant constituted bodies to have oceans on their agendas and work plans in some form and wish to see a formal placement of the oceans dialogue on the agenda. 

I join our members to express our great appreciation to the Presidency for your concerted efforts to ensure the establishment of the Loss and Damage Fund, a mechanism that the Pacific worked hard with you to advocate. We seek to ensure that the Pacific plays an integral part in its governance to ensure access to meet the special needs of our small island developing states. 

I end by again urging all Parties to send a strong message on the actions that must be taken to accelerate climate action noting that for this COP to be a success, it must result in a GST process that delivers a course correction to address the lack of ambition and gaps in implementation to ensure we keep to 1.5 to Stay alive. 

I thank you, Mr President.”

The 28th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC COP28) in Dubai, UAE is taking place from Thursday 30 November 2023 – Tuesday 12 December 2023.  It is being attended by Pacific leaders and their delegations, who are advocating for the survival of Pacific communities that continue to be at the forefront of climate change impacts.