Climate Change

The UNEP's Emissions Gap 2017'report shows Australia is projected to miss its 2015 Paris Agreement pledge by more than a third.

Australia has said it will cut its 2005 emissions by 26 to 28 percent by 2030.

The report released last night showed the country is projected to emit 592-million-tonnes of CO2-equivalent by 2030 compared with its maximum target of 440-million-tonnes.

The decision will affect dozens of projects in France's overseas territories.

The overseas minister Annick Giradin has told the National Assembly that the next budget has no provision to feed the fund which was meant to mitigate against climate change.

Ms Girardin said her ministry cannot be the only one taking care of the effects of climate change, suggesting that other ministries and agencies share the responsibility.

The cut affects dozens of projects, including some in French Polynesia worth almost $US30 million.

Fiji's prime minister Frank Bainimarama is presiding over the 11 day long talks, known as COP 23, which starts next week.

The Fijian government said it was ensuring Fiji's "Bula" spirit is stamped on the occasion by providing cultural shows, a Fijian drua or sailing canoe in the main foyer and talanoa-style negotations.

Fiji, along with most Pacific island countries, wants to see a one-point-five-degree limit on global temperature rise above pre industrial levels.

Fiji is co-hosting the UN conference on climate change in Germany and is holding a series of preliminary meetings this week in Nadi.

Most Pacific countries have long backed limiting temperature rise to 1.5 degrees celsius abover pre-industrial levels, while New Zealand and Australia have committed to two-degrees in line with most other developed nations.

At the meeting, Australia is set to face criticism over the planned Adani coal mine in Queensland and PICAN's Genevieve Jiva said it should not go ahead.

Have Your Sei, led by global advocacy group 350.org, is encouraging people from the Pacific region to lead climate change action by signing a Pacific Climate Warriors Declaration to be presented at the United Nations Climate Change Conference later this year.

The declaration wants to kick big polluters out of climate change talks and do what is needed to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celcius. 

Project co-ordinator Joseph-Zane Sikulu says most of the big countries in climate change conversations are the big contributors to the problem itself.

In his address Frank Bainimarama urged world leaders to strive for more than just the two degrees’ target set in Paris in 2015.

In November, Mr Bainimarama will take up the presidency COP23 UN climate change conference in Germany.

He told leaders at the General Assembly they should commit to limiting global warming to no more than 1.5 degrees celsius above pre-industrial levels.

"It may be tempting for political leaders to show that they are protecting some national industry or near term economic goal," he said.

Germany is hosting the UN climate change meeting this November in Bonn.

At a side event this week at the UN General Assembly in New York, Mr Flasbarth linked the possibilities that can be derived when two different nations work together to build awareness on climate change.

At the same event, the Fiji prime minister Frank Bainimarama reiterated the importance of working closely with Germany.

Enele Sopoaga was speaking at a Small Island Developing States event in New York where he and other leaders have gathered for the United Nations General Assembly.

Describing climate change as a security issue, he said there was a need to ensure that implementation of the Paris Agreement was verifiable.

The Agreement, which aims to limit global temperature increase below 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, was designed to protect communities most vulnerable to climate change impacts.

Data released this month showed average maximum temperatures in the winter months of June to August were nearly 2C above average.

Climate change made the "exceptionally warm and dry" winter 60 times more likely, the Climate Council said in a report.

The group has linked the record hot winter to "worsening climate change".

The Climate Council is an independent, non-profit organisation that was set up in 2013 to continue the work of its government-funded predecessor, which was abolished by the Tony Abbott government.

The study is one of several to address the "carbon budget", which - among other things - determines how much CO2 the planet can emit and still reach a given limit for global warming.

It indicates the 2015 target, perceived by some as tough, could be met with very stringent emissions cuts.

It used computer models that project climate behaviour into the future.

The aim of the Paris deal was "holding the increase in global average temperature to well below 2C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit temperature increase to 1.5C."