U.S. President Barack Obama has released a policy that would force a 30 percent cut in carbon dioxide emissions in the United States, by the year 2030 from 2005 levels.

In response to this, the Pacific Island-based network, 350.org Pacific is calling on New Zealand Prime Minister, John Key, who is currently touring Samoa, Tonga and Niue, to step up his Government’s efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

“Obama’s announcement is what we Pacific Islanders have been desperately waiting for, and we can only hope that other countries will recognize it as the turning point at which they get to work on equally ambitious efforts” said 350.org Pacific spokesperson Fenton Lutunatabua. 

“The current New Zealand Government has always said that New Zealand shouldn’t be a leader on climate change, and that it should instead wait for the rest of the world to take action.” 

“Well now the United States has stepped up in a big way, and China is moving towards replacing dozens of coal power plants with renewable energy.” 

“The expectation is that now Prime Minister John Key must follow suit and announce stronger emission reduction policies for New Zealand,” continued Lutunatabua. 

“If Mr. Key is short on ideas of how to do that, he could look to the recently released policy by the Green Party, which offers a credible new carbon tax scheme that acts at the level of ambition required to protect the Pacific Islands and New Zealand from dangerous global warming,” added Lutunatabua.  

“As for Australia, we have seen how ideologically opposed Prime Minister Tony Abbott is to greater action on climate change. This is why the 350.org Pacific Climate Warriors are already building canoes across 14 Pacific Islands, which we’ll be using later in the year to deliver our message to Australia,” concluded Lutunatabua. 

Meanwhile, as New Zealand Prime Minister John Key tours Samoa, Tonga and Niue, little talk has been made of climate change.

(Samoa News should point out that Samoa is to be the island nation hosting the Third International Conference for Small Island Developing States (SIDS), scheduled to convene from 1-4 September 2014. The SIDS goal is to raise awareness of their unique development challenges and successes regarding a range of environmental problems, including climate change, waste management, unsustainable consumption, degradation of natural resources, and extreme natural disasters.

The UN General Assembly has also declared 2014 as the International Year of Small Island Developing States (SIDS), and the World Environment Day (WED) 2014 will be celebrated under the theme of SIDS.

It should also be noted that during Key’s visit to Samoa he also visited villages and areas that were devastated by the 2009 tsunami and the 2012 Tropical Cyclone Evan. New Zealand sent aid, including millions of dollars, to help restore these areas and the NZ prime minister was checking out the work.)

ABOUT 350.org

350.org is building a global climate awareness movement. Their online campaigns, grassroots organizing, and mass public actions are coordinated by a global network active in over 188 countries.

The number 350 means climate safety: to preserve a livable planet, scientists tell us we must reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere from its current level of 400 parts per million to below 350 ppm.

“We believe that a global grassroots movement can hold our leaders accountable to the realities of science and the principles of justice. That movement is rising from the bottom up all over the world, and is uniting to create the solutions that will ensure a better future for all,” states their website.

History of the Movement

350.org was founded by a group of university friends in the U.S. along with author Bill McKibben, who wrote one of the first books on global warming for the general public.

“When we started organizing in 2008, we saw climate change as the most important issue facing humanity — but climate action was mired in politics and all but stalled. We didn’t know how to fix things, but we knew that one missing ingredient was a climate movement that reflected the scale of the crisis.”

“So we started organizing coordinated days of action that linked activists and organizations around the world, including the International Day of Climate Action in 2009, the Global Work Party in 2010, Moving Planet in 2011, and Climate Impacts Day in 2012. We held the “world’s biggest art installation” and “the most widespread day of political action in the planet’s history.” We figured that if we were going to be a movement, then we had to start acting like one.”

Today, 350.org works in almost every country in the world on campaigns like fighting coal power plants in India, stopping the Keystone XL pipeline in the U.S, and divesting public institutions everywhere from fossil fuels. All of their work leverages people power to dismantle the influence and infrastructure of the fossil fuel industry, and to develop people-centric solutions to the climate crisis.  There is a local youth chapter in American Samoa with members in the high schools and ASCC.

Source: 350.org Pacific