It was a strategic decision intended to build bridges at a time when other leaders seemed eager to burn them.įiji planned the dialogue in 2017, and it was folded into official climate negotiations the following year. Instead of shaming countries that failed to live up to their climate promises, the Fijians stressed to them the urgency of the challenge. So Fiji pioneered a program called the “Talanoa Dialogue,” the name for the national tradition of listening and sharing.
was hostile to climate science, and the E.U.’s attention had turned to Brexit. The incoming Trump Administration in the U.S. Wealthy carbon-emitting nations were facing political storms. In a sign of the islands’ clout, President Obama met with the President of the Marshall Islands and the leaders of four other island nations as negotiations in Paris began.Īfter winning the hosting slot, Fiji developed a plan to coax its peers into supporting the aggressive measures the region’s survival requires. climate-change envoy during the Paris talks. “The countries most vulnerable were the countries pleading with the world,” recalls former Ireland President Mary Robinson, who served as the U.N. Because any country can veto international climate deals, such a move would have doomed the talks. On the streets of Paris that December, activists chanted the mantra, “One point five to stay alive.” Behind the scenes, negotiators from the Pacific states indicated they might oppose a deal that fell short of the target.
In the months that followed, the islands joined with other vulnerable countries to pressure their peers. A country can survive only so many storms whose costs match annual GDP.Įmerging from their September confab, the Pacific countries had not only a commitment to 1.5☌ but also a road map to get others on board. For those at higher elevations, the threat is nearly as dire. Perched just a few feet above sea level, several countries are on the brink of losing their entire land mass.
But the leaders gathered in Suva had known for years it could determine whether their countries survive or sink. That’s just half a degree difference from the 2☌ target that had dominated global climate talks. “All the rights of living,” says Sailosi Ramatu, the village’s administrator, “had been lost because of climate change.” This Saturday morning in mid-May is warm and pleasant, but a few times a year, king tides inundate the village with knee-high waters locals were forced to place precious possessions on tall surfaces and run for the hills. The stench of rotting rodents wafts from abandoned homes, and salt water seeps up through the soil as far as 300 ft. Once home to more than 100 people, Vunidogoloa has been overrun by the tropical forest. It requires a flight across the Pacific to the nation’s remote international transit hub, a 140-mile connection on a rickety 19-seat plane to a smaller island, an hourlong drive past other rural villages and finally a short walk guided by a man with a machete to reach a ghost town forced into retreat by climate change and the rising seas that come with it. The journey to the Fijian village of Vunidogoloa is arduous.
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