Pacific Islands Forum will hold a two hour virtual summit tomorrow “Kainaki II to COP 26 - a High-Level Roundtable on Urgent Climate Change Action.” With no face to face meeting in 2020, island leaders want to build momentum around the Kainaki II Declaration from 2019 in Tuvalu.

The online summit comes on the eve of the 5th anniversary of the Paris Agreement. The Kainaki II Declaration says “without urgent action, we will exceed 1.5°C by as early as 2030” - by 2020, state parties are expected to communicate or update Nationally Determined Contributions.

Kainaki II calls on “all Parties to the Paris Agreement to formulate and communicate mid-century long-term low greenhouse gas emissions development strategies by 2020.”

Forum Secretary General Dame Meg Taylor said this week: “Governments cannot keep saying, ‘we’re going to do it’, we’re going to do it, we’re going to do it’. We’ve reached a point now where we’ve got 1.2 degrees and we can’t afford to go beyond 1.5.”

Calling for urgent action from the Morrison govt, Taylor noted: “The commitment of Australian state governments to net zero carbon by 2050 is a win for humanity and we look forward to that same ambition at the federal level.” https://reneweconomy.com.au/we-have-to-act-now-pacific-islands-plea-to-morrison-on-climate-59184/

The notice for tomorrow’s Forum climate summit also highlights: “It is also the year by which developed country Parties to the Agreement are expected to meet their commitment to jointly mobilise US $100 billion per year in climate finance from a variety of sources.”

Australia has joined the US to refuse new funding to the Green Climate Fund @theGCF, so that’s a not so subtle jab at the Morrison govt that it needs to contribute its fair share of the global commitment of climate funding to developing nations. https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/finding-australia-fair-share-climate-finance