A group of faith-based organisations in Fiji have come together to draft and promulgate the COP23 Multi-Faith Charter.
They have committed themselves to do more to help address the effects of climate change within their own faith communities, as well as make specific calls for increased ambition and action by Parties and non-state actors.
The Fiji Council of Churches, which includes the Catholic church, is among the signatories.
The Charter:
- asks States to take bold action to rapidly reduce emissions, in line with the 1.5°C goal
- seeks an effective Facilitative Dialogue that delivers:
- greater pre-2020 ambition
- improved NDC post-2020 emission reduction targets
- speeding the advance to net zero emission economies
- increased and innovative public and private finance to enable achievement of the 1.5°C goal
- urges the global community to support through sustainable financing, capacity building and technology transfer for ecosystem-based approaches to climate change adaptation, mitigation, and disaster risk reduction as cost-effective tools for all small island developing nations
Fiji’s prime minister Josaia Voreqe Bainimarama is the president of COP23, the 2017 United Nations Climate Change Conference.
The conference began in Bonn Germany on Monday 6 November.
The summit is being held in Bonn because Fiji does not have the resources to handle the logistics of hosting such an event, which is expensive to organise for the thousands of international delegates expected to attend.
Although the COP23 is understood to be mainly technical in nature, Fiji hopes to draw attention to the threat weighing on the inhabitants of the Pacific islands – particularly the Kiribati, Tuvalu and Marshall islands.
“We who are most vulnerable must be heard, whether we come from the Pacific or other Small Island Developing States, other low-lying nations, and states or threatened cities in the developed world like Miami, New York, Venice or Rotterdam,” Bainimarama said in a speech last May.
Read the Charter
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