global solidarity

Tabai calls for global solidarity

SOUTH Pacific nations must take to the international stage in force if their concerns about global warming to be heard and acted upon. That was the call from Kiribati leader leremia Tabai just before the World Climate Change confer ence in Geneva last month.

“Small island states tend to be over looked in such a big meeting,” says President Tabai. “It helps to advertise ourselves. They talk about the problems of Bangladesh, or wherever But they may never have been to a small island state or know how it will affect us.”

Kiribati has attended two inter

national meeting on global warming, and

Tabai says most countries are clear on the threat but there’s no agreement on how to respond. The industrialised nations are reluctant to make the necessary cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. Tabai says the money motive behind their foot-dragging is “too obvious to escape anybody.”

Australia is a good regional example of this reluctance. Tabai says Australia’s performance at the recent meeting of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was disappointing and not representative of the South Pacific Forum’s position on global warming. The Australian Government has since dicided to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20 per cent.

But Tabai says it’s too soon to applaud wholeheartedly because there are so many qualifications, including a pro vision that reductions must no adversely affect Australia’s competitive trade stand ing.

Tabai says the South Pacific nations are working towards the 1992 world conference on climate change and a strong global statement on how to reduce the greenhouse threat. The issue was raised by regional leaders during the Hawaii summit with President Bush last month. In the meantime, the region needs to find the money to get its leaders to international meetings in greater num bers, as Tabai says, “to go there and say we are part of this world.” □