A total of 55 members have been announced to be part of the Fiji Delegation to the upcoming 29th Conference of Parties or COP29, that will be held in Baku, Azerbaijan from the 11th to 22nd of November, 2024..

About 90 percent of the funding for the delegation to travel to Azerbaijan are from external sources.

The main focus for Fiji at COP29 next month will be on the escalating impacts of climate change , the effects this has on sustainable development and security which is required to build lasting resilience .

This was highlighted by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Professor Biman Prasad while speaking at the announcement of Fiji’s COP29 Delegation.

“At COP28, Parties committed to ‘transitioning away from fossil fuels’. We must ensure this language is the key underlying frame and intent that underpins the negotiations in Baku and that it is reflected in the revised NDCs that need to be submitted in just 5 months’ time. We need to be assertive and unrelenting in our requirement for NDCs to be Paris-aligned. This is without question the make-or-break NDC cycle when it comes to the critical 1.5c degree temperature limit”, he said.

Prasad says that as Fiji’s head of Delegation, their goal is to emerge from the negotiation with the priorities intact and the ability to tackle the challenges faced in Fiji.

“You will all have heard our Prime Minister speak on the need to get the world back on track to limit global temperture rise below 1.5 degrees. This is our redline as well as our guiding star. We will not rest until this guardrail is secured. We owe this to those who will follow us. Our children and grandchildren who will not forgive us if we loose our grip on the only means to make the process of adaptation achievable. We owe this to our brothers and sisters and our families in Tuvalu and Kiribati”, Prasad said.

“We owe this to families across the Pacific islands”, he added.

He says that the COP29 agenda is closely linked to the recent deliberation conveyed during the Forum Leaders Meeting in Tonga last month as well the dialogue in New york within this years session of the UN General Assembly.

The DPM highlights that Fiji has clear ambitions which is committed to tackling the loss and damage that is experienced by the people.

“The overarching focus being the escalating impacts of climate change, the downstream effects climate change is having on sustainable development and security, and the colossal deficit that exists between the financing that currently flows towards tackling these challenges and the requisite scale of financing required to build lasting resilience and transition and reshape our economies,” Prasad said.

The delegation will leave for COP29 in the next two weeks.

By Kesaia Vakaola | Intern Journalist