Share stories on climate change impacts on social media

People in Vanuatu and the whole Pacific region are being called on to share stories on social media of how they have been impacted by Climate Change, in a bid to strengthen Vanuatu and Pacific voices leading to the COP21 conference in Paris at the end of this month.

Vanuatu and the other “Pacific Islands contribute to less than 0.03 per cent to the world’s total greenhouse gasses yet are among the most vulnerable to impacts of climate change,” a notice calling for contributions states.

The Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) says the outcomes of COP21 are crucial to the Pacific Region, it says.

SPREP Director General David Sheppard says people in the Pacific Islands understand and know all too well the impacts of climate change. Mr. Sheppard is asking people to use the hastag #4PacIslands when they share their stories via social media.

Vanuatu is understood to have indicated it would be present at the world climate talks, COP21, in Paris at the end of this month.

Negotiators from more than 190 nations around the world will convene in Paris from November 29 through December 11, 2015, with the goal of reaching a new global climate change agreement. These negotiations offer governments a critical opportunity to craft a broad, balanced and durable agreement strengthening the international climate effort

Technically, the conference is the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). That’s why it’s called COP21.

France foreign minister Laurent Fabius says the COP21 climate summit will start as planned on November 30 but with boosted security after terrorist attacks in Paris left more than 120 dead and 200 wounded, Ed King reports.

Eight gunmen and suicide bombers targeted cafes, restaurants, a theatre and the national football stadium on Friday evening in what French President Francois Hollande labelled an “act of war”.

Hollande has declared a national state of emergency after the night of carnage. The Islamic State (IS) militant group has claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Asked if there was any danger the summit – where a UN deal to tackle global warming is expected to be signed – would be cancelled, Fabius replied “No, no, no, no, no, the COP21 [is] to be held,” writes Ed King.

“It will be held with enhanced security measures but it is absolutely essential action against climate change and of course it will be held,” he added, reports Ed King.