Young Fijians need to understand the impact of climate change, says Minister for Economy and Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum.
While speaking during a mangrove replanting program at Namoli Village in Lautoka over the weekend, he said Fiji’s main focus was adaptation which youths played a major role in.
“We’ve made a commitment that by 2050, that we’ll have what we call net zero carbon emissions and we’ve also made various other commitments in respect of not just relocating people but in trying to mitigate climate change,” he said.
“Fiji’s focus is adaptation. We have of course we are going to get into renewable energy but most of our issues is with adaptation so we have to build sea walls. So we have to deal with floods.”
He said Fiji’s biggest natural disasters had a major impact on the country’s economy.
“In the cyclone last year, we had rain within 24 hours as the same amount of rain they had in London in one year. So one year worth of rain in London, we got it within 24 hours in Fiji in the cyclone.
“Cyclone Winston, in 36 hours wiped out half of the value of our GDP. So you can imagine the impact it has on us although Fiji’s carbon footprint is very little compared to the big countries like America, China, India and even Europe, UK and various other places but we have our part to play.
“As I have already highlighted, it’s the youth that really need to understand this because they are basically going to be the ones that face the full brunt of it.
“The fact of the matter is, it’s the young people that are going to inherit our country.
“They are the ones that will have to deal with climate change so how we position ourselves now is critically important.”
