New Zealand must follow through on promise to halve emissions, look at whether it could be strengthened – COP26 president Alok Sharma – Newshub

You've just been in the Pacific, what are they telling you about their fears about climate change?

"The Pacific Islands, a small island developing states are very much at the front line of climate change, and these are not countries that are responsible for the situation they find themselves in.

"I had an opportunity to visit a village in Fiji and I saw for myself in the terrible impact of rising sea levels on the village, not just flooding, but the impact on farming, the ingress into clean water, this is something that they live with every day.

"And, you know, we talk about limiting global warming to 1.5C, but frankly, for these countries, it isn't about thriving, it's about surviving. And so the very clear message to me from the folks that I spoke to was that firstly, they need financial support to adapt to the changing climate, and obviously at COP 26 we got a commitment from developed nations to double the amount of adaptation finance by 2025.

"Secondly, they want to ensure that the money is actually getting on the ground to project - so Fiji and the UK are co chairing a group where we're looking at access to finance.

"And the third is we need to ensure that the biggest emitters, the G20 which are responsible for 80 percent of global emissions, absolutely have to step up to the plate and start to ensure that they are curbing their emissions.

"These people are on the frontline of climate change - they have moral authority to ask the rest of us to take action."

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New Zealand must follow through on promise to halve emissions, look at whether it could be strengthened - COP26 president Alok Sharma - Newshub