The Marshall Islands has joined with 46 nations pledging to have all their energy needs generated by renewable sources by 2050.
This was among developments at the climate summit held last week in Morocco attended by President Hilda Heine, Minister in Assistance Mattlan Zackhras and a large delegation of RMI representatives.
The 47 nations are all members of the Climate Vulnerable Forum, which was created in 2009 and includes those states most at risk from climate change.
“We are pioneering the transformation towards 100 percent renewable energy, but we want other countries to follow in our footsteps in order to evade catastrophic impacts we are experiencing through hurricanes, flooding and droughts,” Zackhras said.
Meanwhile, during the climate summit, COP22, President Heine signed the ‘Second Because the Ocean Declaration.’
The first declaration that was signed in Paris at COP21 emphasized the important role of the ocean for the climate system. It pledged to support the elaboration of a UN Special Report on the Ocean, to promote a High-Level UN Conference on Oceans and Seas, and to develop an ocean action plan under the UN climate framework.
“Marshall Islanders are a proud and resilient sea-faring people,” she said. “We canoed our way across the Pacific thousands of years ago and have been crisscrossing ever since. We have no intention of moving from our islands and giving up our ocean of nearly two million square kilometers.”
Read more about this in the November 25, 2016 edition of the Marshall Islands Journal.