Pacific Islands representatives have signed the Kioa Climate Emergency Declaration, which carries the stories of those affected by climate change. Some stories were shared by villagers of Kioa and Rabi islands in Cakaudrove, Vanua Levu, while the other stories emanated from affected Pacific Island countries.
Representatives from about 42 civil society groups from around the Pacific gathered at Kioa Island for a three-day meeting to put together and finalise this declaration.
Maina Talia, who initiated the meeting with the support of other NGOs, said this was the first time for the group to have a community-based declaration compared with past years.
“We are here to show solidarity and despite the fact we are vulnerable with limited resources, we want to indicate to the world that our tears of resilience will hold them accountable,” he said.
“We want to hold them accountable for injustices caused by industrialised countries and so this declaration includes stories of children from Kioa and Rabi who will tell the world leaders the impacts they face back home.
“Regional partners met on Kioa Island because we wanted to highlight the experiences of these villagers who were brought in from Vaitupu in Tuvalu voluntarily, so no one knew about this climate change impact that we are facing now.”
He said with Kioa islanders being a minority group in Fiji, their story was the best to tell world leaders at the COP 27 meeting.
“We needed to engage with the community so we chose Kioa for this meeting as we don’t believe that staying in hotels to discuss the fate of those affected by climate change will do justice to our presentation.
“We needed to come to the community to hear from them, spend a few days with them so we can feel and see what they go through as a result of climate change.”
Watch video:
