PINA

Fiji’s former Minister for Foreign Affairs has criticised Japan’s plan to release more than one million tonnes of treated nuclear wastewater from its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean. Ambassador Kaliopate Tavola expressed his disappointment, questioning why Japan did not take any alternative possibilities for the treated wastewater when its own fishing community were against the dumping...

Japan and Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO)’s reckless decision to discharge over 1.3 million tonnes of nuclear-contaminated wastewater into our Blue Pacific is a testimony to the dangers of nuclear power,” says Pacific Elders Voice. “No Pacific state is reliant on the nuclear power industry. The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (NPS) meltdown disaster of 2011 is evidence of the...

Pacific Island nations should delay supporting Australia’s bid to host a United Nations climate conference until it commits to ending support for fossil fuels, according to a full-page ad taken out in The Fiji Times newspaper on Wednesday, timed to coincide with the visit of Australian Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen. “Today the Australian government will ask Pacific...

Robert Richmond, University of Hawaii Japan plans to dump treated, radioactively contaminated water from the Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific but it could be used in other ways instead. When the earthquake and resulting tsunami hit Fukushima, Japan in 2011, it killed thousands and caused severe damage to a nuclear power plant, which required a constant flow of cooling...

Representatives from 15 Pacific Island countries revisited and restructured the Regional School Leadership Standards at the regional summit convened by the Pacific Community’s (SPC) Educational Quality and Assessment Programme (EQAP). The five-day Regional Summit on Advancing Resilience and Inclusion through Sustainable Leadership was opened by the Permanent Secretary of Fiji’s Ministry of Education, Selina Kuruleca who emphasised the importance of...

The Pacific region's chief advocate of regionalism has told a Pacific Parliamentarians meeting in Tonga of 2050 vision for the Forum, and called for the annual global climate negotiations to deliver urgent action and ambition to address the climate crisis. A day after delivering opening remarks in Suva at a joint UNFCCC-Fiji Government climate meeting supported by the Pacific Island...

Cook Islands Prime Minister and Chair of the Pacific Islands Forum, Mark Brown has cautioned the region to be wary and ensure the “highest level of due diligence” and “ongoing monitoring of Japan’s dumping of nuclear waster water in the ocean.” “As custodians of our Blue Pacific Continent, and in recognition of the transboundary and transgenerational nature of this issue,...

Former Fiji Attorney-General and Minister for Climate Change Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says our region is scarred by past betrayals, where we were misled and lied to about nuclear testing and its consequences. While criticising the Fiji Government’s intentions by allowing Japan to dump its nuclear waste into the Pacific Ocean without any strong assurances for Pacific people’s well being and advancement,...

Japan's decision to go forward with the release of the treated radioactively contaminated water is “not surprising, but certainly disappointing,” a marine expert has said. Despite public concerns and raging opposition from both home and abroad, the Japanese government announced Tuesday it has decided to start releasing nuclear-contaminated wastewater from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant into the ocean...

Australia, like other countries in our region, is committed to the ongoing protection of the Blue Pacific. “We welcome Japan's transparency and international engagement including with Pacific island countries and expect this to continue,” said a statement from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) Australia has confidence in the process that has led to the decision by Japan to...