France and Vanuatu launched Thursday, on the occasion of Emmanuel Macron’s visit to the Pacific archipelago, a joint call for “immediate action in the face of climate change”, an illustration of the environmental diplomacy that the French president wants to strengthen in this region.
In this “call of Ifira”, named after an islet facing Port-Vila, the Vanuatu capital, the two countries ask all global players to “significantly increase the resources mobilized in favor of vulnerable countries and communities “.
They plead for an acceleration of “the energy transition on a global scale by gradually abandoning fossil fuels”, and say they are “in favor of an ambitious reform of the international financial architecture which takes into account vulnerabilities in the face of climate change” – – a project defended by the French head of state at a summit organized in June in Paris.
France and Vanuatu also underline “the urgent need to deal with the consequences of climate change” and in particular “the rise in sea level” which threatens the islands of the region. Among the “priorities” mentioned, there is also “the protection of marine biodiversity, in particular with regard to the deep seabed” of which they want to completely banish “exploitation”.
Emmanuel Macron, who arrived Wednesday evening from the French overseas territory of New Caledonia and who will continue his tour Thursday evening and Friday in Papua New Guinea, is the first French president to visit non-French countries in the Pacific. General de Gaulle had made a trip to Vanuatu in 1966, when it was still a Franco-British condominium.
In a speech in Nouméa on Wednesday, he explained that he wanted to make the climate one of the main axes of his strategy for Asia-Pacific, which aims to position France as a “power of balance”, to propose “an alternative” in the face of the growing influence of China, which the United States is also trying to counter.
“Our climate response, as an Indo-Pacific power, is precisely the marriage of a Nation that knows how to reconcile the voice of indigenous peoples and a great scientific power”, pleaded the Head of State on Wednesday.
Vanuatu Prime Minister Ishmael Kalsakau urged world leaders at the UN in March to “react, and quickly” against climate change to avoid “the Apocalypse”.
He had then succeeded in having a resolution adopted by the United Nations General Assembly requesting the opinion of the International Court of Justice on the climate obligations of States.
07/27/2023 05:59:23 – Port-Vila (Vanuatu) (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
