MULTILATERAL CORPORATIONS URGED TO WORK WITH THE PACIFIC

Prime Minister Josaia Voreqe Bainimarama this morning delivered the opening remarks at Day 2 of the Sustainable Innovation Forum along the margins of COP26.

In his opening remarks, he urged major multilateral corporations that operate beyond the scale of their entire countries to work with the Pacific.

PM Bainimarama further said nations like Fiji are not only in the front line of climate impacts but also in the front line of systematic change.

“We face the type of urgency and imperative to act that have always been ingredients in the recipe for great innovation,” he said.

“We are the laboratories of the future and we are aggressively seeking opportunities to enlist the private sector, leverage additional resources, and drive expertise into solutions that can be scaled up to create global and generational good.”

The Prime Minister also reiterated Fiji’s commitment to a renewable energy revolution stating Fiji’s net-zero ambition is legally-empowered by the recently-passed Climate Change Act and plans have been clearly stated on building Fiji’s climate resilience, including harnessing nature.

The Prime Minister also said that Fiji needs bold and courageous partners.

“Corporates who claim to be focused on sustainability should not strive for the bare minimum. Too often, I see so-called sustainability officers and executives guarding their corporate interests, not from climate impacts, like the rising seas but rather from the shifting tides of public opinion.

“Other leaders – real leaders – are bold. They are pioneers of this new frontier, they see the future markets, future profits, and the future of their businesses, and they will reap the greatest rewards from this steady but certainly inevitable transformation.”

Prime Minister Bainimarama added; “We know that correcting course will be the single largest and most complex effort mounted in modern history but we’ve also seen how it can become our single greatest opportunity, for jobs, for innovation, and for gains in wellbeing.”

The Prime Minister concluded his remarks stating across Fiji’s 330 islands, there is no shortage of projects or objectives on which Fiji can partner to deliver nor are there limits on the potential on what the future holds. Fiji is open for investment, for innovation and to all the ingenuity the participants of the Sustainable Innovation Forum will unleash.