“We Need Talanoa for Climate Ambition” – COP 23 President

President of the UN Climate Conference COP23 and Prime Minster of Fiji, Frank Bainimarama has called everyone to take part in the so-called “Talanoa Dialgoue”, an important international conversation in which countries will check progress and seek to increase global ambition to meet the goals of the Paris Climate Change Agreement.
“It is vitally important that all members of the Grand Coalition we are building for decisive action take part in the Talanoa Dialogue – governments at every level, civil society, the private sector and ordinary men and women,” he said.
Speaking at media summit on climate change and disaster risk reduction in Fiji, the COP President pointed out that the Talanoa Dialogue is a process designed to raise the ambition of national climate action plans (Nationally Determined Contributions or “NDCs”) that each country is making to reduce its own carbon emissions and build resilience to climate change.
“As those of you from the Pacific will know, talanoa is the word we use in Fiji, Tonga and Samoa to describe an inclusive process in our own countries of sharing stories and experiences and achieving best practice in the decisions we make. And now we have taken this process to the global level to encourage everyone to move closer to our goal of keeping the temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius above that of the pre-industrial age,” he said
Frank Bainimarama underscored the importance of the new internet portal launched by the United Nations to support the Talanoa Dialogue. “We hope that this inclusive, participatory process will deliver the greater ambition we need to save our planet”, he said.
The COP President said the media has a critical role to play in the global negotiations to reduce net carbon emissions to zero as soon as possible, saying “As my team and I preside over the global negotiations to reduce net carbon emissions to zero as soon as possible, you in the media have a critical role to play. And I ask you all to focus your complete attention this week on what you can do – individually and collectively – to assist your own nations, our region and the world to confront this challenge head on. To tell the stories that needs to be told. To generate the action that needs to be taken.
“Friends, you have the power through the keyboard, the camera and the spoken word to make a genuine difference, to highlight the urgency of concerted action at every level to avert catastrophe. But also to highlight the wonderful opportunities that lie ahead if we have the courage and imagination to fully embrace the transition to clean economies.
“There are plenty of stories out there about the negative effects of climate change of current or impending disaster, of gloom about the prospects of change. Of doom about what will happen if we don’t. But I ask you all to think outside the box – as I’m fond of saying – and in your storytelling, fire people’s imaginations about the positive. Of what is possible if we alter our mindsets from doom and gloom to working together effectively as people and as nations to meet this challenge,” he said.