Palau: “Our house is on fire, we must quench the fire or we will have no home”
UN,New York- President Tommy Remengesau Jr. echoed the global call to action to combat the impacts of climate change, “Our house is on fire,” vowing that small island developing states (SIDS) like Palau will lead the way in dealing with climate change or “we will have no home.”
Palau President Tommy Remengesau is part of powerful #SIDS panel during the UN Climate Action Summit on Monday. UNPhoto
President Tommy Remengesau Jr. was among the number of Pacific leaders that addressed the one-day UN Climate Summit on Monday, highlighting the need to end the age of carbon. But Mr. Remengesau emphasized urgent need of SIDS for funding to allow them to pay for the expensive cost of climate change. "We have very ambitious targets set by all the SIDS countries.
However the clean energy target is estimated to need 16 billion between now and 2030...partnership that is needed to address the capacities to mobiles to resource," said President Remengesau.
He said for decades , SIDS have led the way to drive greenhouse gas emissions to net zero. “However our access to financing and technical resources is limited international support structures have not been adequate,” he said. Palau with other SIDS and Pacitic nations are staying within the 1.5 degrees limit set by the Paris Agreement.
Remengesau said with that commitment, global carbon emission should be halved by 2030, turn to ocean-based climate action, decarbonization of energy systems and deploy renewables.
According to the latest Pacific Islands Regional Climate Assessment (PIRCA) of Palau, the nation is running the risk of experiencing more frequent and intense extreme rainfall events in the future with global warming.
It added that sea level rise will continue in Palau and for tropical Pacific Islands, sea level rise is expected to be 20-30% higher than the global average. He said in order for small nations like Palau to take the next step, partnership is key. Remengesau said he can’t stress enough the importance of partnership to build capacities and mobile resources to fight climate change.
Bernadette Carreon's attendance at the United Nations was supported by the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat
