Fiji and the Pacific have endured storms of a ferocity and scale unknown by living memory and have watched their homes ripped off their pilings.
Prime Minister, Voreqe Bainimarama highlighted the reality of the climate change impacts on Small Island Developing States during his keynote address at the Climate Front Liners event in Glasgow, Scotland.
“There is the slower and more insidious terror of seeing your community lose ground, inch by inch, to the encroaching waters, eroding any hope that your children will inherit your home, your fishing grounds, your cultural landmarks and the land where your ancestors are buried.”
Bainimarama says Pacific people have weathered horrific storms in the past five years that destroyed years of work and thousands of livelihood.
“There are the children in Fiji who have stood in the wreckage of what was once their classrooms. Many of them still shudder when they hear the rumble of heavy rains”.
The Prime Minister says erratic weather has robbed many people’s vision of their future.
