PM Wale opens the Fifth Pacific Climate Change Conference in Honiara, calling for Pacific climate knowledge to drive action.
Prime Minister Matthew Cooper Wale today opened the Fifth Pacific Ocean Pacific Climate Change Conference in Honiara, calling on the region to turn climate knowledge into practical action.
The Pacific-owned and Pacific-led conference is being hosted for the first time in Solomon Islands under the theme “Amplifying One Pacific Voice for Action on 1.5°C to Stay Alive.”
Prime Minister Wale said the Pacific must move beyond documenting climate impacts and strengthen its role as a source of knowledge, leadership, innovation and solutions.
“The Pacific is not merely a place where climate impacts are observed. It is a source of knowledge, leadership, law, innovation and solutions,” he said.
He said the impacts are already being felt across Pacific communities, with rising seas affecting freshwater and food gardens, warming oceans threatening reefs and fisheries and extreme weather placing communities, infrastructure and livelihoods at greater risk.
“My central message to this conference is simple: turn Pacific knowledge into Pacific action,” he said.
Prime Minister Wale urged participants to focus on outcomes that can be implemented from stronger policies and early-warning systems to finance-ready projects, practical research and community-based solutions.
He said implementation rather than the number of meetings held must define the success of Pacific regionalism.
“The strength of our Blue Pacific Continent will never be found in the number of meetings we hold but in the difference we make together for the generations that follow,” he said.
As the Pacific prepares for Pre-COP31 and COP31, Prime Minister Wale also called for sustained regional coordination and a united negotiating position.
He said Pacific countries may have different national circumstances, but must stand together on issues fundamental to the survival and wellbeing of their peoples and ocean.
“One Pacific voice must mean sustained coordination before, during and after international negotiations,” he said.
Prime Minister Wale said the conference should strengthen connections between Pacific researchers, governments, institutions and communities and help turn evidence into policy, investment and action.
“Let this gathering be remembered not only for what we discussed, but for what it helped to deliver,” he said.
SOURCE// OFFICE OF PRIME MINISTER PRESS RELEASE
