Paris Agreement is the main message

Update: 3:41PM WHEN the Conference of the Parties meet for the 23rd time in Bonn in November, the chairperson of the event, Fiji Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama, will push for the implementation of the Paris Agreement.

Mr Bainimarama made his main COP23 agenda public this week in Chicago, Illinois when he met climate leaders in the private sector of the United States of America.

The Paris Agreement or Accord de Paris is an agreement within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that deals with greenhouse gases emissions mitigation, adaptation and finance due to start in 2020.

He told the American climate leaders that COP members must not step back from the agreement but instead form a coalition to ‘push our collective agenda forward’.

“This requires strong and principled leadership from everyone. Every level of government – State and local – every section of civil society and especially in this context, the real drivers of economic progress – our businesses great and small,” Mr Bainimarama said.

“Together, with the support of billions of ordinary people around the world, it is time to take a stand. Individuals empowering themselves to ask more of each other and their leaders. And of course, the philanthropic community so richly represented here today.”

The COP23 chair said everyone at the Chicago meeting had the power to change the world, and said his presence there was to appeal to them to harness that power to address climate change which he said was the greatest challenge the world had ever faced. 

“As incoming COP President, I ask every one of you to join me in this grand coalition to defend our collective agenda and maintain the momentum for change. 

“I may come from a small country but I have been given a huge task and I intend to fulfill it.

“Fully implementing the Paris Agreement is a cause worth fighting for. A mission that cannot be delayed or deterred by politics.  For the sake of our planet and all 7.5 billion of our fellow global citizens, we must not falter. We must prevail.”