WITH Fiji’s hosting of COP23 in Germany last month, I invited a Pacific negotiator to give me her take on the climate change talks and her views are republished below. “THE COP in Bonn appeared to be two meetings held in parallel with little connection between the two.
There was the Bula zone where the rule book for the Paris Agreement was being negotiated and the Bonn zone where various side events, talks, displays, dancing and kava drinking took place. Most of the so called accomplishments were undertaken in the Bonn zone.
Sadly, the engagement of the Fijian Presidency in the hard negotiations in the Bula Zone was very limited and poorly directed. The great expectations that this would be a Small Island States COP were never realised. Despite efforts to identify key SIDS outcomes at the Pacific Climate Champions meeting in Suva in July, many of these issues were pushed in to the background.
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