Pacific News Minute: Island leaders 'left out' of major UN climate meeting - Hawaiipublicradio

Pacific News Minute: Island leaders 'left out' of major UN climate meeting | Hawai'i Public Radio

Pacific News Minute: Island leaders 'left out' of major UN climate meeting

Representatives of Pacific Island nations expressed frustration and disappointment at the recent United Nations climate summit.

They say they were left out of the main meeting hall when the final deal was decided.

Government officials meeting in Dubai and representing nearly 200 countries agreed to a deal that calls for a transition away from fossil fuels. But the lead negotiator for the Alliance of Small Island States said she wasn’t part of the final discussions.

CNBC reported that Anne Rasmussen told the summit’s president he finalized the decisions when “we were working hard to coordinate the 39 small island developing states that are disproportionally affected by climate change, and so were delayed in coming here.”

The agreement is the central part of the 2015 Paris Accord and its goal is to try to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, above pre-industrial times. So far, the world has warmed 2.2 degrees Fahrenheit since the mid-1800s.

Scientists say this year will most likely be the hottest on record. But for Pacific Island nations, which are in danger from rising sea levels, the deal falls short.

Rasmussen said that “the course correction that is needed has not been secured,” with the agreement representing business-as-usual instead of exponential emissions-cutting efforts. She said the deal could “potentially take us backward rather than forward.”