CLIMATE change will top the agenda when the Anglican Church from the Oceania region is hosted by the Diocese of Polynesia Anglican Church in Suva next week.
Archbishop Dr Winston Halapua said it was important to hold such an important discussion because the South Pacific remained one of the smallest contributors to global carbon emissions and yet faced some of the most devastating consequences of extreme weather patterns.
“Climate change is an issue that the Oceania region understands because we are already going through it.
“Last year, we met as primates of the Anglican communion where we had to take leadership initiatives on.
“It is everyone’s priority now because we all suffer from it one way or another,” he said.
Dr Halapua said this was the first time for the meeting to take place for the Oceania region and he believed that Fiji was the best place for the three-day forum.
“Next week’s meeting would be a golden opportunity for us to make our voice stronger and more effective and to have it heard and understood on an international stage.
“One other purpose of the meeting will be for the four provinces, Australia, Melanesia, Papua New Guinea and Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia to hear about actions already taking place in their respective parts of the Pacific, and to co-ordinate and unify around that action.”
