Climate change issues not to be forgotten

On Saturday, August 30, hundreds of local people of all ages braved the pouring rain to support their causes at the March in August at Gosford Waterfront.

Among the many now familiar posters were several on environment and climate change. Of interest, and perhaps not widely known, is that in our own Pacifi c region a most important conference was held. The third International United Nations Conference on small island developing states (SIDS) called Island Voices-Global Choices was held in Samoa from September 1 to 4. It included six multi stakeholder partnership dialogues on: sustainable economic development; climate change and disaster risk management; social development in SIDS, health and non-communicable diseases, youth and women; sustainable energy; oceans, seas and biodiversity; and water and sustainability, food security and waste management. Further, Climate Summit 2014-Cataylzing Action will be held in the United Nations Headquarters in New York on September 23. The secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon is hosting this Climate Summit to engage leaders and to advance climate action and ambition. This summit will serve as a pubic platform for leaders at the highest level. All United Nations’ member states as well as financial business, civil society and local leaders from public and private sectors are expected to attend to catalyse ambitious actions on the ground to reduce emissions and strengthen climate resilience. It will also mobilise political will for an ambitious global legal agreement by 2015 that limits the world to a less that two degree Celsius rise in global temperature. There will be eight action area announcements
– agriculture, energy, forests, cities, fi nancing, pollutants, resilience and transportation. Plus four thematic discussions – the economic case for climate action, voices from the frontlines of climate change, climate science and climate health and jobs. We urge our Australian representatives to take a much more positive, productive and leadership role in their decisions and with moral responsibility. We cannot ignore the latest United Nations intergovernmental panel on climate change report. Everyone will be affected.
(Leaders of 125 nations have agreed to attend the climate summit but the Australian Prime Minister has decined.)

Letter, 1 Sep 2014
Pamela Lemoine,
East Gosford