Tuvalu's prime minister says if the United States leaves the
Paris climate agreement, it will be disastrous for his country - and the
world.
President Donald Trump told Reuters last week his government will
decide within the next fortnight whether or not to leave the 2015
agreement, which sets global targets to reduce the rate of global
warming.
Mr Trump has previously called global warming a hoax, and has
appointed a climate change sceptic to lead his environmental protection
agency.
The prime minister of Tuvalu, a low-lying country which is one of the
worst-hit by rising sea levels, Enele Sopoaga, told Jamie Tahana his
country is watching the goings-on in Washington closely, and he hopes Mr
Trump will reconsider.
Tuvalu's Prime Minister, Enele Sopoaga.
Photo: RNZI / Jamie Tahana
Transcript
ENELE SOPOAGA: It's quite a worrying scenario for us
vulnerable countries like Tuvalu. We certainly hope that the Trump
administration would reconsider and remain with us to work together. Big
countries and small countries, this is a global issue and therefore it
requires a global response, particularly strong leadership coming from
the leadership of the world, and certainly I hope - and I know, perhaps -
that within the next week I'm sure the White House will reconsider the
importance of us working together and remaining in the Paris agreement
for the sake of everybody -- not only the economies, but more
importantly to save everybody including the people of America. That is
my prayer, and I do hope that the leadership in the Trump administration
would consider that for the sake to save the US people, to save Tuvalu,
and save the rest of the world because we don't have any other option.
JAMIE TAHANA: What would be the consequences were he to make the decision to leave the Paris accord?
ES: I think it is symbolically very damaging to our collective
leadership for our future generations, the youth of every nation would
look at this as very destructive leadership, leaving the pact, because
this is the future of our young people and their children and their
families in the future, and island countries like Tuvalu would see this
as very damaging leadership, very destructive and obstructive and
therefore quite discouraging. But my strong hope [is] that we come to
our senses to take on our responsibilities as leaders of the world
trying to aspire for more secure, sustainable and happy livelihoods.
Walking away from this would be a serious defeat to multilateralism, a
serious defeat to humanity, and it would be a great shame for us as
human beings to walk away from these instruments that we worked so hard
to achieve in Paris 2015.
JT: Are the people of Tuvalu watching what's happening in the United
States with these climate decisions quite closely? Because, of course,
you can't really deny that the US is quite important in what happens.
ES: Absolutely. Absolutely. We see this box in front of our eyes
every day with BBC and CNN and all these beaming into the houses of our
families. For Tuvalu, having worked together with the United States
during the Second World War, Tuvalu contributed to working with the US
to address the enemy in those days, it is letting us down now we are
facing a different enemy that is really real and threatening to the
lives of people. These positions from the White House sort of giving the
people a very uncertain future and a feeling of distress and distrust
on the whole idea of big countries helping. It's really distressing to
see this.
No comments:
Post a Comment