Pacific Voices @ COP15: David Lambourne, Kiribati

Geoffrey Smith, Fiji TV, Climate Pasifika

One of the Pacific states hit hardest by climate change is critical of how other developed states are approaching COP15.

Kiribati negotiator David Lambourne says unless parties enter the negotiation process with the flexibility to compromise, it will be hard to expect any form of agreement to come out of COP15.

Transcript
David Lambourne, Kiribati

The thing is really, what we are seeing is far too many countries are taking a hardline approach and what we need to see is countries to enter the negotiations in the spirit of compromise.

Because without that spirit of compromise we not going to get a deal at all. And even if we get to the end of the week with this many leaders here obviously they are going to be looking for a political statement at the very least. But there are countries here who so much want to trash this process, they want to derail this process that they looking to get not even a strong political statement they looking to get a weak political statement.

And really from the small Pacific Island perspective we really cant afford that.

We really want a legally binding agreement ... but if that is not possible, our absolute bottom line is...and here's me drawing a red line, our bottom line is we need to find a strong political statement from our leaders and from all the word leaders, not just from the Pacific.

We've already made our statement but what we need is a global consensus and that there is a strong commitment to doing something with climate change to ensure that we all join together in committing to mitigation and that we also join together in ensuring that there are adequate funds available for small island states.

The ultimate reality for us is if we stick with these red lines, the coast lines the coastline that we will be drawing for Kiribati has no land in it. For us its a matter of survival so we have no choice but to fight it, to keep fighting and to scream and shout and do whatever we can to try and get a commitment from our friends in the world to something thats meaningful.