Japan Prime Minister Taro Aso announced the aid plans, an increase of more than 10 percent over the last three years, at the closing of the Pacific Leaders Meeting in Hokkaido on Saturday.
“Pacific leaders are worried about rising sea levels,” Aso said at a press conference. “Hearing concerns of Pacific island leaders was very persuasive.”
“Climate change is a life and death issue,” said Aso’s spokesman Kazuo Kodama, the director general for press at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, during the PALM summit. “It’s about the survival of island countries. There was a strong sense of crisis by all speakers at the PALM.”
Aso said Japan wants to use its “leading edge technology” to help Pacific island nations facing rising sea levels from global warming.
“We hope countries know we have to act now to slow the climate change cycle and help our earth survive,” said Niue Premier Toke Talagi, who co-chaired the PALM meeting with Aso.
Japan has a moral obligation to resolve climate change issues and the threat of sea level rise that could wipe out many of the low-lying atoll nations in the Pacific, he said. “There is a need to bring greenhouse gas emissions down, increase recycling and support more serious environmental protection,” Kodama said.
A focus of the PALM talks was Japan’s proposal to create a “Pacific environment community” that Kodama said is one way to coherently focus on mitigating climate change impacts.
Kodama said that 6.8 billion yen, about $66 million, will be injected into the Pacific Islands Forum, the Fiji-based regional agency that represents the independent nations in the region including New Zealand and Australia.
In addition to funding for environmental activities, other Japan aid will support people-to-people exchanges and technical training programs for islanders.
During a bilateral meeting Friday, Marshall Islands President Litokwa Tomeing asked Aso for Japan’s help in shifting his country’s dependence on fossil fuel to renewable energy sources.
“Japan is willing to give grant funding to the Marshall Islands for solar power generation systems,” Aso said.
Thirteen island countries — Niue, Kiribati, Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, Marshall Islands, Palau, Samoa, Papua New Guinea, Cook Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu — were represented at PALM by heads of state.
Fiji interim Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama, who took power in a military coup in late 2006, was represented by Ratu Inoke Kubuabola. New Zealand and Australia also participated with senior officials.
Aso promised to provide aid and technical assistance for “practical, Pacific-tailored approaches to combating climate change, including responses addressing adaptation, mitigation and if necessary, relocation.”
The declaration from the PALM meeting expressed “deep concern” about the “growing threat posed by climate change to the economic, social, cultural and environmental well-being and security of Pacific island countries.”
“Japan wants to lead the world in the climate change fight,” Kodama said at a press briefing Friday. “Pacific islands are not responsible for it, but have to deal with rising sea levels. They are by far the most vulnerable in terms of fending off the affects of global warming.”
