Fiji Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka has called for urgent climate action to confront the human cost of climate change and keep the global temperature rise target of 1.5 degrees Celsius within reach.
The call came ahead of the formal opening of Pre-COP31 in Fiji on Tuesday.
Pacific leaders and Pre-COP31 delegations gathered in Nadi on Sunday for a church service, beginning the region’s journey into the climate negotiations with prayer, reflection and fellowship.
The service brought together leaders, delegates and members of Pacific church communities ahead of the Pre-COP31 meetings in Fiji and Tuvalu, grounding the week’s discussions in the Pacific’s values of faith, community and collective responsibility.
Reverend Charissa Suli, President of the Uniting Church in Australia, said prayer and listening to the Word of God remained an important part of how Pacific communities begin significant gatherings.
“In the Pacific, this is where we begin — we pray, we listen to the Word of God,” Suli said.
Rabuka said the Pacific’s experience of climate change must be understood beyond scientific data and economic targets, through its impact on homes, livelihoods, cultures and communities.
“Climate change is not only a scientific problem, or an economic one. It is a moral one,” Rabuka said.
He said climate change was already contributing to the loss of homes and livelihoods, degradation of reefs and displacement of communities across the Pacific.
Rabuka called on leaders attending the conference to listen directly to communities on the frontline of the climate crisis and accelerate action to keep the 1.5-degree target within reach.
“This week, I ask the leaders who come to our shores to do three things,” he said.
“We ask them to come, see and listen with an open heart to those on the front line. We ask them to come ready to accelerate and deliver the effort needed to keep our promise—to honour our shared moral and legal obligation, to limit global average temperature rise to 1.5 degrees.”
Rabuka said every fraction of additional warming would increase the damage to communities and ecosystems.
“Every fraction of a degree of human-driven warming moves us beyond the balance set by God’s creation, and inflicts further harm on homes, villages and livelihoods,” he said.
He also called for stronger action to address continued dependence on fossil fuels.
“We ask them to come with the courage to face down the fossil fuel addictions and greed that continue to fuel this crisis, for we cannot in good faith allow it to unfold and grow any further.”
Climate finance is expected to be a major issue during the Pre-COP31 discussions, with Fiji and other Pacific countries pressing for greater financial support to reach communities most affected by climate change.
The Pacific is also expected to link its climate priorities to its broader vision of an Ocean of Peace, which recognises that peace includes harmony among people and with the natural environment.
“Peace is more than the absence of conflict. It is peace with one another, and peace with the creation that sustains us. That is the reality we pray for,” Rabuka said.
He urged participants to approach the conference with hope and a commitment to action.
“Let us go from here not with fear, but with hope, and with work to do,” he said.
The church service was hosted by the Pacific Conference of Churches ahead of the Pre-COP31 meeting, which brings together Pacific leaders and international climate negotiators ahead of COP31.
