The Prime Minister of Tuvalu put responsibility for climate change and its dire impacts squarely on the shoulders of wealthy industrialized countries earlier this week, during a two-day Climate Action Pacific Partnership conference in Suva, Fiji.
“They are vultures,” said Enele Sopoaga.
- The climate news you need. Subscribe now to our engaging new weekly digest.
- You’ll receive exclusive, never-before-seen-content, distilled and delivered to your inbox every weekend.
- The Weekender: Succinct, solutions-focused, and designed with the discerning reader in mind.
The partnership event “was aimed at gathering views of Pacific leaders on the collective action they want to be taken during the COP23 meeting which will be chaired by Fiji in Bonn, Germany in November,” the Fiji Times reports.
Tuvalu and other small Pacific island states are paying the price for the rich world’s predatory practices, Sopoaga maintained. “It is simple arrogance, meaning at the end of the day it’s the money issue that is driving climate change,” he said.
“And when you are dealing with money issues, the leaders are more interested in having wars. Why? Because industries thrive, and when industries thrive, it is through making tools, equipment, and guns. They are the vultures.”
Sopoaga urged Pacific islanders to “rediscover the traditional knowledge system of their forefathers as solutions to the impacts of climate change.”
