Your Excellency, President Heine,

Members of the media,

Ladies and Gentlemen.

Bula vinaka and a very good afternoon to you all. 

Let me begin by congratulating President Heine on launching the Marshall Islands’ long-term decarbonisation pathway this week, becoming the first island nation to do so and the tenth country overall. 

I would also like to thank President Heine for her wonderful climate leadership more generally, in particular as President of the Climate Vulnerable Forum, as well as for convening the High Ambition Coalition. Vinaka vakalevu. 

Friends, members of the media, today, I am very pleased to announce that Fiji will deliver an enhanced emissions-reduction target. 

When? By next year.

Why? Particularly when we contribute so little to the warming that threatens our planet? Because we are determined to do what we are asking others to do and to lead by example. 

How? We are engaging all sectors of the economy to prepare a long-term decarbonisation strategy for net-zero emissions by 2050, which will inform the preparation of the new NDC. This means that Fiji’s NDC will no longer cover just the energy sector, but potentially other critical sectors such as land transport, maritime transport, domestic aviation, waste, agriculture and forestry. 

As part of this comprehensive, whole-of-economy approach, we have identified the potential evolution of these sectors in business-as-usual, high-ambition, and very-high-ambition scenarios. This has included identifying feasible low-carbon development options that have the potential to reduce carbon emissions, enhance carbon sinks and build resilience. We will announce the full details of this strategy at COP24. 

With this announcement today, we join our friends in the Marshall Islands to become the first two countries to signal our unreserved intention to raise the ambition of our NDCs by 2020. 

While there is certainly pride attached in being amongst the first, I can also say – and I’m sure President Heine would agree – at the moment, it’s far too lonely up here. In the end, this isn’t a race against each other, it’s a race against time. And time is running out. Only when many others, including much larger emitters, join us in committing to strengthened targets will we tip the scales back in the planet’s favour and put the world back on track to achieving the temperature goals set by the Paris Agreement. 

I know that many countries are already working in this direction, and I encourage them in their efforts. I look forward to hearing what they have to share in the coming months, including at some of the important milestones coming up, such as the Virtual Summit of the Climate Vulnerable Forum and Talanoa Dialogue at COP24 this year, and the UN Secretary-General’s Summit next year. 

To others, I say this: it’s decision time. Collectively, it’s time to decide what kind of future we want. And then to do what it takes to make it happen. The current commitments we have all made under the Paris Agreement have put us in the race, but we’re currently running far too slowly to have any chance of winning – if we define winning as preserving the quality of life on earth as we know it. We will win or lose this race together. 

The good news is that we have the training and the equipment we need. It’s just a question of whether we have the stamina and the ability to dig deep to find our extra reserves of power. I believe the answer to this question, in part, is found in the Talanoa Dialogue, a process based on the concept of talanoa, an open, honest and respectful process of dialogue used in communities in Fiji and other Pacific nations. The idea of talanoa is to move the world beyond blame games, finger-pointing and zero-sum negotiations in order to bring the best ideas to the surface and share them – all in an effort to give political leaders the inspiration, the tools and the partnerships they need to prepare more ambitious emission reduction targets by 2020.

One of the greatest examples of the power of talanoa was last fortnight’s Global Climate Action Summit, convened by my friend and Special Envoy to States and Regions, Californian Governor Jerry Brown. Investors, cities, states, civil society groups and others showed us a number of ways that countries can harness all this progress and put it to use to strengthen climate ambition at the national level.

I have said before that I fear too many people continue to underestimate the peril we are in because of climate change. But let us not also underestimate our collective ability to solve the problem. Exponential technological change is already happening, which can be a game changer. We have the ability to change our energy systems, to draw down carbon into our forests, mangroves and soils and to make more efficient use of our resources. Today represents two small steps forward from two small island nations. This is a start. But what we need now is one big global leap forward. It’s up to all of us to make sure we don’t fall short of our potential—to ensure that we win the race against time. 

Vinaka vakalevu. Thank you