Pacific Islands say rich countries aren’t doing enough to control climate change

2023-05-16 06:06:20

BANGKOK – Pacific island governments criticized rich countries for not doing enough to control climate change despite being responsible for much of the problem, and for taking advantage of loans to vulnerable nations to mitigate the effects.

During a United Nations conference on climate change in Bangkok on Monday, dignitaries and representatives of Pacific island nations demanded that the world do more to put aside its differences in combating environmental impacts, especially as their countries emerge from the economic devastation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown said the climate finance model — lending to reduce impacts — is “not the right thing” for countries in his region, which have populations so low that they they produce “inconsequential carbon emissions”, but suffer much of the effects.

He called for a change to grant grants or interest-free loans to ease the financial burden on the poorest countries.

“The only thing we are doing is adding debt to the countries that have come out of COVID with greater debt, and personally I think that is extremely offensive, that we have to ask for money to make ourselves stronger, and ask the same countries to they are causing climate change,” he told The Associated Press.

Brown assured that his country lost around 41% of its GDP due to the pandemic, “a loss of a decade of prosperity.”

He added that he will convey this message to governments when he represents his small South Pacific nation — which has about 17,000 people — at a G7 summit this week in Japan, where he hopes he can address from a platform of greater equality towards heads of state rather than as “merely a grateful beneficiary” of “benevolent donors”.

Palau President Surangel S. Whipps Jr. agreed that funding opportunities are “few and hard to come by,” criticizing richer countries for not committing to the financial aid they promised, an amount that he said —represents only a small portion of the spending that they do prioritize, such as defense spending.

“We didn’t cause the problem, but now they’re going to make money off us by giving us a loan to pay back with interest,” he told The Associated Press.

Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.