International expert group meeting on indigenous peoples and climate change, Darwin Australia, April 2-4 2008, contribution by Mr. Fiu Mataese Elisara

Abstract

This paper is about climate change in the Pacific from the perspective of Indigenous Peoples - The Liquid Continent! On average, more than 90% of Pacific peoples are Indigenous and have been involved for many years in the UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol as well other climate change processes to call for climate justice in our region and to support similar calls by other indigenous brothers and sisters around the world to stop the injustices that impact on our rights and lands because of the issue of climate change. The flawed so-called solutions promoted in Bali in December 2007 are cases in point. As we continue to witness the natural and manmade disastrous phenomenon in our world of today, it brings home to us the reality that the world of today is a disaster machine producing crises with distressing regularity, unprecedented global catastrophe of apocalyptic proportions like social disintegration, and man induced environmental disasters such as climate change!