DOCSLIB.ORG

Kiribati, I-Kiribati Women and Forced Migration Due to Climate Change

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Kiribati, I-Kiribati Women and Forced Migration Due to Climate Change Discourses of Vulnerability: Kiribati, I-Kiribati Women and Forced Migration Due to Climate Change By Holly Alison Haultain Kings Mansfield A Thesis Submitted to Victoria University of Wellington in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Pacific Studies Victoria University of Wellington 2012 Abstract Discourses of vulnerability abound in climate change literature; both particular types of places and particular groups of people are routinely considered especially vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Such discourses are employed by the international community in a technical manner—attempting to categorise current and expected degrees of impact on places and populations—and also to support the advocacy of urgent action to respond to climate change. This thesis examines the manner in which discourses of vulnerability are being invoked in discussions about the impacts of climate change and considers what impact this has on the people and places that are being described in this way. This research focuses specifically on Kiribati and I-Kiribati women and explores, in particular, how the debate about forced migration (as a possible outcome of climate change) has been shaped by vulnerability discourses. Both Kiribati, as a specific type of geographical entity, and women, as a category of people, have been described as having extreme vulnerability to climate change. It is not new for either Pacific Islands or women to be framed as “vulnerable”; however with the increased attention to climate change, vulnerability discourses are being used with such frequency that it is virtually impossible to find literature on the Pacific and women that does not reference their vulnerability. The use of such an emotive term raises questions. Who is naming and claiming vulnerability? What impact does such language have on those that are portrayed in this way? And, what are the long-term consequences of such terminology being used? Interesting questions are also raised regarding discursive similarities between presentations of vulnerable women and vulnerable islands. This thesis addresses these questions by analysing international literature on climate change and forced migration—especially that produced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)—between 1990 and 2007, and contrasting this with close analysis of public discourse from two vocal I-Kiribati advocates, Pelenise Alofa and Maria Tiimon, from 2009 to 2011. Conclusions are drawn from this analysis regarding the power relationships embedded in discourse, and the possible ramifications of language use for the construction of policy. i Acknowledgements This journey of writing a thesis has been one with many ups and downs and it is the love and support of a great many people that has enabled me to complete it. I would like to take this opportunity to thank those people. I would like to start by thanking the people of Kiribati who, since climate change has become such a pressing issue for the international community, have been inundated with researchers, scientists, and volunteers, all working on defining the issues that are perceived to be affecting Kiribati, formulating solutions, and researching both the place and its people. I am very much aware that this increased attention has been both beneficial and at times unwanted. I therefore want to thank the people of Kiribati for, although they are not aware of it, being subject to yet another research project. I hope that I have conducted this research with an awareness of your voice, concerns and agency within the climate change context. Secondly I would like to thank both Pelenise Alofa and Maria Tiimon who, through the use of their various speeches, presentations and activism have brought this thesis to life and provided the content that I have been able to use in my analysis. The way that these women deliver their speeches, the language that they use and the passion with which they speak, has brought a very real and rich sense of the stakes of climate change for Kiribati, and for them as I-Kiribati women, to the debates. I also want to extend thanks to my family and friends who have consistently supported me, pushed me along, dedicated babysitting hours, to both me and my son, and excused my absence from their lives while this thesis has been put together. I cannot say thank you enough. I would like to extend a special thank you to my other mother Mandy McDonald, Mandy you have been the greatest support to me throughout this whole process. Your dedication of time, your constant encouragement, support, understanding, and, when called for, firm hand has enabled me to complete this thesis. It is true that without you I am not sure that I could have done this. So thank you Mandy and I love you. ii Thanks also needs to be given to my son, Harvey Warner, who has provided all the light relief that I have needed and constantly reminds me that life is full of wonder and it’s important to take a break and a deep breath and appreciate it. This thesis would also not have been completed without the enormous amount of time that my supervisor, Dr. April Henderson, has given to both me and this research. April, you have guided me through a very fulfilling and at times challenging process with your calmness and positivity. Your wealth of scholarly knowledge which you have shared with me has been inspiring. Thank you for knowing exactly when to push me, encourage me, hurry me and ground me. I feel very fortunate to have had the pleasure of you as my supervisor. Lastly I would like to thank the people that are no longer with me, Luci Highfield and Mark (Bolt) Haultain. Your strength, courage and determination in your ultimate battles have provided me with great examples which I have learnt so much from. I am only sorry that I cannot share the excitement of finishing this thesis with you. I would like to finish with a poem for all those people that have helped me along the way, both in their examples and with their presence. Arohanui Big love, that’s what it means. Aroha Nunui means huge love. Aroha Nunui Rawa means very huge love. Aroha Nunui Rawa Ake means bigger very huge love. Aroha Nunui Rawa Ake Tonu means bigger enduring very huge love. Aroha Nunui Rawa Ake Tonu Atu means biggest enduring hugest love, Which are some of the lengths and times of our longing (Robert Sullivan) iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................. I ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................... II LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................................... VI LIST OF TABLES ...............................................................................................VII CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ..................................................................... 1 CHAPTER TWO: IMAGES OF VULNERABILITY WITHIN THE CLIMATE CHANGE DEBATE: PACIFIC ISLANDS AND WOMEN - A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE ............................................................................................... 6 THE PRODUCTION OF CLIMATE CHANGE KNOWLEDGE ............................................ 7 VULNERABILITY DISCOURSES ............................................................................... 18 SMALL ISLAND STATES......................................................................................... 22 FORCED MIGRATION AS A CONSEQUENCE OF CLIMATE CHANGE ............................ 29 WOMEN AND VULNERABILITY .............................................................................. 33 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................ 39 CHAPTER THREE: OUTLINE OF METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH ...... 41 WHY QUALITATIVE RESEARCH? ........................................................................... 41 A CASE STUDY APPROACH ................................................................................... 43 CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS ........................................................................... 46 REFLEXIVITY........................................................................................................ 49 CHAPTER FOUR: ARTICULATIONS OF ISLANDS, WOMEN AND FORCED MIGRATION FROM OUTSIDE THE PACIFIC .............................. 54 ARTICULATIONS OF ISLANDS ................................................................................ 55 ARTICULATIONS OF WOMEN ................................................................................. 59 FORCED MIGRATION ............................................................................................ 68 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................ 76 CHAPTER FIVE: ARTICULATIONS OF KIRIBATI’S AND I-KIRIBATI WOMEN’S VULNERABILITY BY PELENISE ALOFA AND MARIA TIIMON ................................................................................................................................ 78 FRAMING THE PACIFIC: RECAP OF THE THEORETICAL DEBATE ............................... 80 CALLS FOR MITIGATION ....................................................................................... 84 THE APPLICATION OF BIOPHYSICAL VULNERABILITY FRAMEWORKS ..................... 85 APPROPRIATION OF LANGUAGE ............................................................................ 86 SHIFT TO ADAPTATION ........................................................................................
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Australian High Commission Tarawa Quarterly Newsletter
    AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT Australian High Commission Tarawa Quarterly Newsletter ISSUE: 03 DECEMBER 2010 PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY VISIT SPECIAL POINTS OF The Australian Parliamentary Sec- his team received a typically INTEREST: retary for Pacific Island Affairs, the enthusiastic welcome from the Hon Richard Marles MP visited students and staff at the Kiribati • PM’s Pacific Kiribati on 30 November 2010. School and Centre for Children Mr Marles meeting the Principal of Australia Award Mr Marles was accompanied by with Special Needs. Among the the KIT, Ms Tess Martin senior advisers and officials from highlights was a rousing rendi- • RAMSI the Department of Foreign Affairs tion of the Australian national RKS Teanoai, Mr Marles discussed • More photos on and Trade and AusAID. anthem and a dance in tradi- bilateral defence cooperation and re- page 5 tional costume performed by gional maritime surveillance issues with the students for their Australian senior Kiribati Police Service and Aus- tralian Defence Force personnel. As part of his visit, Mr Marles an- nounced an additional $50,000 in fund- ing for the School and Centre for Chil- dren with Special Needs and another $45,000 for a new Satellite Internet HE Brett Aldam meeting the Par- INSIDE THIS Centre to promote officer training at liamentary Secretary for Pacific Mr Marles giving his speech at ISSUE: Island Affairs, the Hon Richard the School Marles MP on arrival in Tarawa Parliamentary 1 visitors. For their part, the Secretary visit Mr Marles’ visit reaffirmed the Australian team looked abso- lutely resplendent in the golden- Orthopeadic strength and vitality of relations 2 wattle inspired shirts presented Team between Australia and Kiribati.
    [Show full text]
  • The Potential for Climate Change- Related Migration
    WHERE TO NOW? THE POTENTIAL FOR CLIMATE CHANGE- RELATED MIGRATION What is the state of the international approach to the potential problem of climate change-related migration, and what contribution does Hodgkinson, Anderson, Burton and Young’s proposed Climate Change Displaced Persons Convention make to the international approach? 1 A Thesis Submitted to the Victoria University of Wellington in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of International Relations (MIR) School of History, Philosophy, Political Science and International Relations Victoria University of Wellington Anne Cawthorn 300071159 June 2012 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis would not have been possible without the help and support of Martin, Frances, Bella, and Alex; of Kate McMillan and my colleagues Paul, Charlotte, Steph and Jo. 3 LIST OF ACRONYMS General Acronyms AOSIS Alliance of Small Island States (Negotiating group under the UN) CCCDP Convention for Climate Change Displaced Persons (Hodgkinson, Burton, Anderson and Young) IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (UNFCCC’s scientific arm, which brings together scientists and science on climate change from all over the world) SIDS Small Island Developing States SIS Small Island States UNFCCC United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (Convention establishing responses to anthropogenic climate change. Successor document currently under negotiation by 195 states.) UDHR Universal Declaration of Human Rights Convention for Climate Change Displaced Persons Acronyms CCDO Climate
    [Show full text]
  • [2013] Nzhc 3125
    IN THE HIGH COURT OF NEW ZEALAND AUCKLAND REGISTRY CIV-2013-404-3528 [2013] NZHC 3125 BETWEEN IOANE TEITIOTA Applicant AND THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF THE MINISTRY OF BUSINESS INNOVATION AND EMPLOYMENT Respondent Hearing: 16 October 2013 Appearances: M J Kidd for the Applicant R E Savage for the Respondent Judgment: 26 November 2013 JUDGMENT OF PRIESTLEY J This judgment was delivered by me on Tuesday 26 November 2013 at 2.30 pm pursuant to Rule 11.5 of the High Court Rules. Registrar/Deputy Registrar Date:…………………………. Counsel/Solicitors: M J Kidd, Barrister and Solicitor, Henderson R E Savage, Crown Solicitors, Auckland TEITIOTA v THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF THE MINISTRY OF BUSINESS INNOVATION AND EMPLOYMENT [2013] NZHC 3125 [26 November 2013] Refugees [1] The immediate aftermath of the Second World War presented the then international community with a number of challenges. One such challenge was to provide some mechanism for the protection of human beings who were the victims of persecution. [2] The League of Nations, which some hoped would prevent or curtail warfare by collective security arrangements, had clearly failed. The Axis powers in Europe, spearheaded by Hitler’s Third Reich, had systematically persecuted and killed millions of people, singling them out for concentration camps upon the grounds of their ethnicity, race, or religion. [3] The defeat of Fascism in 1945 did not end persecution. Riding into central European countries behind the tanks of the Red Armies came communist regimes. These governments, nurtured by the Soviet Union (which had already tipped its hand with the execution of Polish middle class leaders and army officers in the forests at Katyn) set about imposing Marxist-Leninist regimes which were to blight the lives of millions of people for two generations.
    [Show full text]
  • ANNUAL REPORT of the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme
    Value Island Biodiversity – it’s our life 2010 ANNUAL REPORT of the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme SPREP ANNUAL REPORT 2010 2010 ANNUAL REPORT of the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme SPREP Library – Cataloguing in Publication Data Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme SPREP Annual Report: 2010. Value Island Biodiversity – It’s Our Life. – Apia, Samoa : SPREP, 2011. p. 29 cm ISSN: 1562-675X 1. Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP). I. Title 363.7099 Cover photo: O le Pupu Pue coastline, Samoa Photo by Stuart Chape. Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme authorises the reproduction of this material, whole or in part, provided appropriate acknowledgement is given. SPREP, PO Box 240, Apia, Samoa T: +685 21929 F: +685 20231 E: [email protected] W: www.sprep.org This publication is also available electronically from SPREP’s web site. Design: Helen Dean Design, Melbourne, Australia SPREP ANNUAL REPORT 2010 PHOTO – S. Chape CONTENTS ENVIRONMENTAL GOVERNANCE 28 FOREWORD 2 Replenishing the Global Environment Facility 28 Mainstreaming and strengthening 29 INTRODUCTION 4 Environmental assessment and planning 29 A new monitoring and assessment system 29 VALUE ISLAND BIODIVERSITY – IT’S OUR LIFE 9 Mainstreaming frameworks and agreements 29 International Year of Biodiversity in the Pacific 9 The Pacific voyage to Nagoya 9 POLLUTION CONTROL AND WASTE MANAGEMENT 30 Pacific highlights to COP 10 10 Solid waste management 30 Shipping-related
    [Show full text]
  • Climate Change, Kyoto Protocol, Cop15 (Copenhagen Summit), Tarawa Climate Change Conference- Examrace
    9/27/2021 Climate Change, Kyoto Protocol, CoP15 (Copenhagen Summit), Tarawa Climate Change Conference- Examrace Examrace Climate Change, Kyoto Protocol, CoP15 (Copenhagen Summit) , Tarawa Climate Change Conference Glide to success with Doorsteptutor material for competitive exams : get questions, notes, tests, video lectures and more- for all subjects of your exam. Kyoto Protocol The Kyoto Protocol has put in place three flexibility mechanisms to reduce emission of Green House Gases. Although the Protocol places maximum responsibility of reducing emissions on the developed countries by committing them to specific emission targets, the three mechanisms are based on the premise that reduction of emissions in any part of the globe will have the same desired effect on the atmosphere, and also that some developed countries might find it easier and more cost effective to support emissions reductions in other developed or developing countries rather than at home. These mechanisms thus provide flexibility to the Annexure I countries, helping them to meet their emission reduction obligations. Let us take a look at what these mechanisms are. ©Examrace. Report ©violations ＠https://tips.fbi.gov/ What are the three flexibility mechanisms put in place of the Kyoto Protocol for reducing GHG emission? 1 of 4 9/27/2021 Climate Change, Kyoto Protocol, CoP15 (Copenhagen Summit), Tarawa Climate Change Conference- Examrace The three mechanisms are joint implementation. Emissions Trading and Clean Development What is Joint Implementation? Through the Joint Implementation, any Annex I country can invest in emission reduction projects (referred to as joint Implementation Project) in any other Annex I country as an alternative to reducing emissions domestically.
    [Show full text]
  • Dhaka Declaration
    1 | DHAKA DECLARATION DHAKA MINISTERIAL DECLARATION OF THE CLIMATE VULNERABLE FORUM NOVEMBER 14, 2011 We, Ministers and representatives of Governments from Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Latin America and the Pacific, members of the Climate Vulnerable Forum, representing a significant number of countries most vulnerable to climate change and meeting in Dhaka on 14 November 2011, Recalling the 2009 Male’ declaration as the founding document of the Climate Vulnerable Forum, created at the initiative of the Republic of Maldives, and the 2010 Ambo Declaration, agreed under the leadership of the second Forum chair, the Republic of Kiribati, Mindful of the firmly robust and unequivocal scientific basis of accelerating global climate change, wherein human activities are indisputably the principal and growing cause as well as of the imperative to act with urgency, Standing indivisible as we are in our determination to act to bring about a resolution to the global menace of climate change which ultimately entails ever greater human suffering, inequity and irreversible damage to the Earth, Resolute thereby in our commitment to pursuing, autonomously as an independent strategic choice and to the extent possible, national green development pathways, in spite of our limited capacities and negligible present and historical contribution to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that are the principal cause of climate change, Reaffirming herein the objectives and principles of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), as well as the commitments
    [Show full text]
  • AMBO DECLARATION Final
    AMBO DECLARATION We, Leaders, Ministers and Representatives of Governments participating in the Tarawa Climate Change Conference held on 10 th November 2010, recognizing that, climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our time and that there is an urgent need for more and immediate action to be undertaken to address the causes and adverse impacts of climate change, expressed; 1. Alarm at the impacts of the climate change crisis already being felt in our countries threatening the sustainable development and security of our countries, especially the immediate threat to the livelihood and survival of the most vulnerable States on the frontline, including Small Island States, Least Developed Countries and countries susceptible to drought and desertification; 2. Grave concerns over recent scientific findings on the worsening state of the global climate as a result of human induced climate change, especially the primary impacts such as sea level rise, ocean acidification and extreme weather events and their adverse consequences, threatening the survival of atoll and low lying nations, their people and biodiversity; 3. Acknowledgement that anthropogenic climate change can be mitigated through greater cooperation by Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and through individual and global commitment to achieving deep cuts in current and future emissions levels, and agreed to pursue this vigorously; 4. Ongoing commitment to the principles and provisions of the UNFCCC, the Kyoto Protocol, the Bali Road Map mandate and to building on the political understandings of the Copenhagen Accord. 5. Deep concerns over the slow pace that international negotiations within the UNFCCC is taking to reach legally binding agreements necessary to meet the ultimate objectives of the Convention and call upon all Parties to work together to fast track the pace of these negotiations to safeguard the future of peoples, particularly those in the most vulnerable States in the frontline; 6.
    [Show full text]
  • CLIMATE CHANGE, FORCED MIGRATION, and INTERNATIONAL LAW a Book by Jane Mcadam (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012)
    Afe Babalola University: Journal of Sustainable Development Law and Policy Vol. 1 Iss. 1 (2013) pp. 168-171 BOOK REVIEW CLIMATE CHANGE, FORCED MIGRATION, AND INTERNATIONAL LAW A book by Jane McAdam (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012) Reviewed by: Demola Okeowo* OVERVIEW The book Climate Change, Forced Migration, and International Law is an authoritative compendium of the real issues in discourse on climate change related movement and its implications in international law. Prior to reading this book, I had read a lot of articles and stories on blogs, which have exaggerated the issue of ‘climate change refugees’. Some of the articles went to the extent of saying that some States will in fact disappear completely at the end of a given time if nothing drastic is done about climate change.1 Professor McAdam describes these authors as ‘alarmists’.2 The other point of exaggeration was the number of those that will be displaced due to climate change impacts.3 As a matter of fact, the United Nations * LL.B, BL (Nigeria), LL.M (Groningen, The Netherlands), LL.M (Queen’s, Canada), Doctoral Student, Faculty of Law, University of British Columbia, Canada. I am grateful to Professor Benjamin Richardson of the Faculty of Law, University of British Columbia, Canada who recommended the book under review to me 1 Ajay Chhibber, “Statements at the Pacific Islands Forum Leaders’ Meeting” UNDP Cairns Convention Centre, (6 August, 2009). Online: <http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/presscenter/speeches/2009/08/06/ajay-chhibber- statement-at-the-pacific-islands-forum-leaders-meeting.html>.
    [Show full text]
  • Climate Change Negotiations
    17 Establishing a Pacific Voice in the Climate Change Negotiations George Carter When asked about the greatest challenge to global climate change negotiations at the United Nations Third Small Islands Developing States Conference in 2014, the leaders of three Pacific Island states expressed similar sentiments. Enele Sopoaga, Prime Minister of Tuvalu, said that ‘Pacific negotiators need to be in sync at the UNFCCC’; Tony de Brum, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Marshall Islands, asserted that ‘there has been a failure of traditional diplomacy at the UN … we need a new brand of diplomacy … one voice diplomacy’; and President Anote Tong of Kiribati argued ‘we need to establish alliances that are non-traditional, that serve our best interest’. These responses echo the frustration of Pacific leaders at the state of current negotiations as they prepare for the Conference of the Parties (COPs) in Paris, 2015. The COPs 2015 is especially significant as it attempts to produce a new global climate change action agreement for post-2020. For almost 25 years, the global climate change regime has been an arena of complex and multifaceted diplomacy involving seemingly endless negotiations on a wide range of issues with a plethora of actors (state, civil society and private 205 THE NEW PACIFIC DIPLOMACY businesses).1 The climate regime is based on the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which commits its 196 state parties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions under the mechanisms of the Kyoto Protocol. Despite the various negotiation impasses, the constant contact of negotiators has allowed for innovative forms of climate diplomacy.
    [Show full text]
  • Just Comm 187
    VOL 16 NO 5 • 2013 www.erc.org.au A joint publication of Edmund Rice Centre for Justice and Community Education & The School of Education, Australian Catholic University The Majuro Declaration: Pacific island leaders get down to tin-tacks The coral atolls and other A “Pacific Gift” to the World low-lying islands that dot the Pacific The plight of Pacific peoples was Ocean are just a few meters above sea- given a strong shake-up on the fifth level. These islands will experience a of September this year by Pacific higher sea level rise than other parts of Island Leaders gathered at the 45th the world and Pacific peoples are Pacific Islands Forum representing already exposed to the adverse effects fourteen South Pacific Islands of climate change, something that is not spread throughout a vast area of of their own doing. They are compelled 3.5 million square kilometres of to attend to their very survival. ocean: Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Various Islands expect to be flooded, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New bringing salination of water supplies, a Guinea, the Marshall Islands, loss of land through erosion, and Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, population displacements that increase Tuvalu, and Vanuatu. To many Australians agreement by 2015, something that population density or forced these islands simply represent attractive will demand enormous ambition, an emigration, even though identity and vacation places of sun, sparkling seas, equitable arrangement, justice, and 1 culture are tied to peoples’ islands . In palm trees, and exotic cultures. For political resolve. Kiribati’s Tarawa population density these Small Island Developing States equals London’s, with almost all land (SIDS), however, it is not a question of “I have gone first.
    [Show full text]
  • Kiribati Diagnostic Trade Integration Study 2010 Report Text Copyright © Integrated Framework Partnership 2010
    Kiribati Diagnostic Trade Integration Study 2010 Report Text Copyright © Integrated Framework Partnership 2010. All rights reserved. Design Copyright © Blue Planet Media + Communications Vanuatu 2011. All rights reserved. USP Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data Kiribati diagnostic trade integration study, 2010 report / [Daniel Gay, editor]. – Suva, Fiji : UNDP Multi Country Office, 2011. 208 p. : ill. ; 24 cm. ISBN 978-982-304-035-6 1. Kiribati—Commerce 2. Kiribati—Economic conditions 3. Economic development— Kiribati 4. Kiribati—Economic policy I. Gay, Daniel II. UNDP Multi Country Office (Fiji). HF4032.3.Z5 K57 2011 380.099681 Edited, designed and produced by Blue Planet Media + Communications Vanuatu. Email: [email protected] Table of contents Table of contents..........................................................................................................................................1 List of acronyms...........................................................................................................................................4 Foreword..........................................................................................................................................................7 Executive summary....................................................................................................................................9 Recommendations................................................................................................................................... 13 DTIS Action Matrix...............................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Pacific Calling Partnership at Tarawa Climate Change Conference - November 2010
    Pacific Calling Partnership at Tarawa Climate Change Conference - November 2010 ERC Director Phil Glendenning and ERC's Eco-Justice coordinator, Jill Finnane attended the Tarawa Climate Change Conference at the invitation of the Government of Kiribati as the delegates of the Pacific Calling Partnership. Although a conference of Government delegations Pacific Calling Partnership was particularly honoured as one of only ten organisations from outside of Kiribati invited to participate with official observer status. Jill Finnane has prepared the following reflection on the context and process of the conference and on the content of the Ambo Declaration - bringing together also the reflections of other Pacific Calling Partners. Opening Prayer: 'It is us who have spoiled this paradise" The opening prayer thanked God for the land that you have given us to be our dwelling place. The land you've created so perfectly to become our paradise of happiness and freedom. It is us who have spoiled this paradise. The prayer went on to confess: We regret that we have failed in our job to look after creation and regenerate good things out of it, as you expected us to do.... It then went on to ask for help to find good solutions praying: Unite us as one in our thoughts to work together to find a common solution to the problems brought about by climate change. It is likely that all faiths and none were represented there as the prayers challenged us with cautionary reminders of the immensity of the task ahead and embraced us with hope. Opening Address Kiriabti President Anote Tong In a similar vein, President Tong, in his opening address encouraged assembled delegates to take responsibility for climate change: We only have one planet - rich country or poor country, a country of millions or of thousands - we all breathe the same air and share the same resources.
    [Show full text]