Australia allocates funds to fight climate change in Pacific countries

The Australian government today announced the creation of a fund to finance projects to help Pacific island countries combat the climate crisis caused by global warming.

The package, of 500 million Australian dollars (337 million US dollars or 331 million euros), is aimed at investments in renewable energy, the construction of infrastructure capable of withstanding natural disasters and improving health services, among others.

“The Pacific is our home and we share it as a family of nations. We need to work with our Pacific partners to address the potential challenges they will face in the coming years,” Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said in a statement.

The president, whose government avoids introducing laws to meet the signed objectives of the Paris Agreement in 2016, will participate on Wednesday in the Pacific Islands Forum – which is being held until Friday in Tuvalu – where the climate emergency is the main issue in the most vulnerable region of the planet in the face of rising water levels.

The impact of climate change is already being felt strongly in the Pacific, where several island nations see their existence threatened as a result of the loss of territory and the progressive salinization of soil and drinking water aquifers.

Last May, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the climate emergency “the decisive issue of our time” during a tour of several South Pacific countries and warned of the weakening of the political will to confront it.

Source: The Vanguard