CAIRNS, 6 August 2009: Climate change poses an existential threat to the Pacific Island countries and may further aggravate conflicts over increasingly scarce resources, a high-level panel warned Thursday at the Pacific Island Forum in Cairns, Australia.
– We recognize climate change to be a critical development challenge with enormous implications for the entire range of development concerns: poverty, livelihoods, food security, conflict and social cohesion, to name a few, said Ajay Chhibber, United Nations Assistant Secretary-General, who is also Assistant Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme and UNDP Director of the Asia and the Pacific Regional Bureau.
– At a time of global economic crisis, climate change has the potential to reverse hard-won development gains in the region, which could compromise our collective ability to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and plans for a prosperous, peaceful and secure region,” added Chhibber, who chaired the high-level climate change side event at the 40th Pacific Islands Forum Leaders’ meeting, August 5-6.
Panelists called on countries to act immediately to address threatening climate change issues, stressing the importance that the Pacific Island countries develop adaptation intervention to “climate-proof” their development plans and policies.
Richard Towle, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) Regional Representative for Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and the Pacific, told the panel that the legal and human rights implications of displacement driven by forces such as climate change and environmental degradation have yet to be seriously addressed – regionally and globally.
– However, it is clear that climate change – and the human security and development challenges it brings – adds to the scale and complexity of human movement and displacement in the region, Towle said, and added: We need to act now if we are to find solutions for people whose homes, lands and livelihoods are, as we speak, being destroyed by rising sea levels and violent fluctuations in weather patterns in the region.
The Pacific Islands Forum comprises 16 independent and self-governing states. The Forum is the region’s main political and economic policy organization, whose leaders meet annually to develop collective responses to regional priorities.
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