Foreign Relations of Kiribati - Diplomatic Efforts Relating To Climate Change

Diplomatic Efforts Relating To Climate Change

As one of the most vulnerable nations on the planet in terms of the effects of climate change, Kiribati has been an active participant in international diplomatic efforts relating to climate change, most importantly the UNFCCC conferences of the parties (COP). Kiribati is a member of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), an intergovernmental organization of low-lying coastal and small Island countries. Established in 1990, the main purpose of the alliance is to consolidate the voices of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) to address global warming. AOSIS has been very active from its inception, putting forward the first draft text in the Kyoto Protocol negotiations as early as 1994.

In the summer of 2008, Kiribati officials asked Australia and New Zealand to accept Kiribati citizens as permanent refugees. Kiribati is expected to be the first country in which all land territory disappears due to global climate change. In June 2008, the Kiribati president Anote Tong said that the country has reached "the point of no return"; he added: "To plan for the day when you no longer have a country is indeed painful but I think we have to do that."

In 2009 President Tong attending the Climate Vulnerable Forum (V11) in the Maldives, along with 10 other countries that are vulnerable to climate-change, and signed the Bandos Island declaration on 10 November 2009, pledging to show moral leadership and commence greening their economies by voluntarily committing to achieving carbon neutrality. In November 2010, Kiribati will host the Tarawa Climate Change Conference (TCCC), the purpose of which is to support the initiative of the President of Kiribati to hold a consultative forum between vulnerable states and their partners with a view of creating an enabling environment for multi-party negotiations under the auspices of the UNFCCC. The conference is a successor event to the Climate Vulnerable Forum. Based on the lessons learned in the COP process to-date, the TCCC proposes a more inclusive format of consultations, involving key partners among major developed and developing nations. The TCCC will be a major advocacy and partnership building event embedded in the overall context of global and regional (Pacific) consultations on climate change. Furthermore, the TCCC aims to be an integral part of the process of regional and global consultations scheduled to take place in 2010. The ultimate objective of TCCC is to reduce the number and intensity of various fault lines between parties to the COP process, explore elements of agreement between the parties and thereby to support Kiribati's and other parties' contribution to COP16 to be held in Cancun, Mexico, from 29 November to 10 December 2010.