Search This Blog

Total Pageviews

Advertisement

Labels

Load More
Trendy Right Now

Popular Posts

Banner
Navigation
Showing posts with label Pacific Islands Forum. Show all posts
Pacific Ocean
Blue Pacific Deep Sea Mining Pacific Islands Forum Pacific Ocean

MEDIA RELEASE: Pacific Groups welcome calls to Ban Deep Sea Mining

November 08, 2022 0


MEDIA RELEASE
8th November, 2022
 

Pacific Groups welcome calls to Ban Deep Sea Mining

 
The Pacific Blue Line collective welcomes the call by France for a ban on deep sea mining, a call that Pacific civil society groups and movements have been pushing for since 2012.
 
French President Emmanuel Macron announced today at COP27 that he supports a ban on deep sea mining (DSM), a firm stance against deep sea mining after he called for caution at the UN Ocean Conference in Lisbon in June this year.
 
The ban stance by France now follows calls by Germany for a precautionary pause on the advancement of DSM, together with New Zealand’s recent announcement on a conditional moratorium on DSM in international waters. These calls come timely in absence of internationally agreed rules and regulations for exploitation.
 
Pacific civil society groups and churches who have been rallying for a global ban on DSM since 2012, say the recent announcements and policy positions ranging from a pause, stop, recess, moratorium, and ban on DSM by state parties to the International Seabed Authority (ISA), must be taken seriously.
 
“The rush to approve test mining and applications for scope of work should not be considered by the ISA at this stage, the priority should instead be to enhance the other mandates of ISA’s which is to preserve, protect and ensure the principles of intergenerational equity and do no harm to the common heritage of mankind,” said Joey Tau from the Pacific Network on Globalisation.
 
The Pacific Blue Line (PBL) collective argues that the ISA should not consider any scope of work. Consideration of a plan of work under circumstances where the international community has not agreed rules, regulation, is a violation of the ISA’s duty of due diligence.
 
The PBL collective further maintains that whilst Nauru may have triggered the two-year rule under section 1, paragraph 15 of UNCLOS as is their sovereign right, the ISA is under no obligation to be pressured into considering a scope of works in July 2023.
 
“The calls for a halt come at a critical time for the planet when the health of our ocean is in decline due to human activities and the need to protect and preserve is necessary to ensure the survival of our planet particularly in the context of a climate emergency. Oceans remain one of the most stable carbon sinks today as forests are now considered negative carbon sinks due to human activity. DSM poses a significant threat to the worlds carbon sinks including methane seeps and therefore totally inconceivable as a green energy transition option,” said Rev. James Bhagwan of the Pacific Conference of Churches.
 
“The ISA in its responsibility and duty of due diligence under UNCLOS must protect the common heritage of mankind, and consider the severity of the present climate emergency, a reality that can only be made worse by the risks posed by DSM," Bhagwan said.
 
The calls by France, Germany and New Zealand now join the growing number of states calling for precaution on DSM, including Fiji, Samoa, Federated States of Micronesia, and Palau.
 
ENDS
For media follow-ups:
Joey Tau Email: media@pang.org.fj

Read more »
Pacific Islands Forum
Japan Nuclear Free Zone Pacific Conference of Churches Pacific Islands Forum

Dame Meg Taylor: We note, with Deep Concern, the Decision by the Government of Japan to discharge the Advanced Liquid Processing System

April 14, 2021 0


A Strong Statement by Dame Meg Taylor, Pacific Oceans Commissioner and Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum, Regarding the Japan Decision to Release ALPS Treated Water into the Pacific Ocean

In my capacity as Depositary of the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty (Treaty of Rarotonga), as Pacific Ocean Commissioner, and on behalf of the Council of Regional Organisations in the Pacific: we note, with deep concern, the decision by the Government of Japan to discharge the Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS) Treated Water from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station into the Pacific Ocean, and wish to highlight and reiterate the position of the Pacific Islands Forum region in relation to this matter.

For decades, Forum Leaders have expressed strong concern regarding nuclear legacy issues. At their last meeting in 2019, Leaders expressed concern for the significance of the potential threat of nuclear contamination to the health and security of the Blue Pacific, her people and prospects. They acknowledged the importance of addressing the long-standing issues of nuclear testing legacy in the Pacific, and called for the operationalisation of the provisions of the Treaty of Rarotonga.

The Treaty of Rarotonga is determined to keep the region free of environmental pollution by radioactive wastes and other radioactive matter. At the Meeting of the States Parties to the Treaty of Rarotonga just four months ago on 15 December 2020, Forum Members “reaffirmed unity in our continued commitment to a nuclear free Pacific and a nuclear weapons free world, and further reaffirmed our determination for a region free of environmental pollution by radioactive wastes and other radioactive matter”.

In “acknowledging Japan’s efforts to date and its engagement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)”, the States Parties also “recalled concerns of the environmental impact about the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Reactor accident in 2011, and urged Japan to take all steps necessary to address any potential harm to the Pacific”.

We are of the view that steps have not been sufficiently taken to address the potential harm to our Blue Pacific Continent, including possible environmental, health, and economic impacts. Our fisheries and oceans resources are critical to our Pacific livelihoods and must be protected.

As required under international law, and as highlighted by the States Parties in December 2020, Japan should take all appropriate measures within its territory, jurisdiction or control to prevent significant transboundary harm to the territories of our Blue Pacific Continent, including our South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone.

These obligations are reiterated under the 1986 Convention for the Protection of the Natural Resources and Environment of the South Pacific Region (Noumea Convention) and related Protocols, the 1995 Convention to Ban the Importation into Forum Island Countries of Hazardous and Radioactive Wastes and to Control the Transboundary Movement and Management of Hazardous Wastes within the South Pacific Region (Waigani Convention).

We therefore urgently call on the Government of Japan to hold off the conduct of the discharge of the ALPS Treated Water until further consultations are undertaken with Pacific Island Forum Members and an independent expert review is undertaken to the satisfaction of all our Members.

Suva, Fiji: 13 April 2021


Source: FB

Read more »
Spiritual Ecology
Climate Change conservation Pacific Islands Forum Spiritual Ecology

Spiritual Ecology: The Solution to Our Climate Change Crisis?

February 11, 2010 0

 Spiritual Ecology is an exploration of the spiritual dimension of our present ecological crisis. At the core of Spiritual Ecology is an understanding that our present outer ecological crisis is a reflection of an inner spiritual crisis.

Sufi teacher and author
This post was published on the now-closed HuffPost Contributor platform. Contributors control their own work and posted freely to our site. If you need to flag this entry as abusive, send us an email.

This week's United Nations Climate Change Conference at Cancun, Mexico is a global forum in response to a global crisis. As well as considering cutting carbon emissions, the conference hopes among other issues to advance green technologies and fund safeguards to prevent further deforestation of the Amazon. Already there are fears that it will fail to deliver real agreements and that as a result, the planet will be condemned to an uncertain or precipitous future. But this evokes in me a central question: can we respond to the true nature of global climate change from just an economic or political perspective?

Our ecological imbalance and the resulting crisis of climate change are caused by our industrial culture, by its chemicals, toxins and particularly carbon emissions. At the root of our predicament is a deep disregard for both the environment and for the consequences of our actions until it is almost too late. How can we expect to solve this ecological imbalance without an awareness of these roots -- that part of the real cost of our materialistic way of life is our loss of a lived connection and reverence for the sacred that is in all of life? Surely we need to recognize that there is a direct relationship between our outer, physical, ecological predicament and our forgetfulness of the sacred in creation.

Spiritual Ecology is an exploration of the spiritual dimension of our present ecological crisis. At the core of Spiritual Ecology is an understanding that our present outer ecological crisis is a reflection of an inner spiritual crisis. Recently many people have been made aware that we are at the "eleventh hour," or even a few minutes before midnight, of a global ecological situation that could result in catastrophic climate change or other irreversible global situations. However we are less aware of the inner spiritual crisis that underlies this outer crisis -- that a lack of awareness of the sacred within ourselves and within all of life has created an inner wasteland as real as any outer landscape. The interconnection between the outer and inner is foundational to life, both our individual life and the life of all of creation, as has been understood by indigenous peoples since the very beginning; therefore we cannot address our outer ecological crisis without a real consciousness of the inner situation. We cannot redeem our physical environment without restoring our relationship to the sacred.

The first step is always to become aware of what is happening. The outer signs of our ecological crisis are only too visible in the pollution of our waters, the dying of species, the change in our climate. The inner changes are less understood, particularly as our Western culture has for centuries dismissed the inner worlds, claiming that only the physical world is real. For those of us who have directly experienced the inner world through dreams, visions or other experiences, we know its value. While those who hunger for the reality of the soul know the pain of dismissing this dimension. It is here within our hearts that the sacred is born. It is in the inner world of the soul that meaning comes into our lives. And here in the inner worlds there is a crisis as dangerous as what is happening in the physical world.

Our collective pursuit of materialism and our disregard for the sacred within all of life has had a devastating effect. We have dismissed our ancient role as guardians of the planet. As a result, the sacred fire that we were supposed to keep burning, the light of the sacred that nourishes all of creation, is slowly going out. We can see this in a culture that is increasingly soulless and fractured. We may feel it in an underlying collective anxiety that can easily become anger, projected onto outer situations. We may sense it within our own soul as if something is becoming lost. And we are responsible. We vitally need to become conscious of what is happening to this sacred light. We need to recognize this growing darkness which is a forgetfulness of the sacred within our own souls and within all of creation. Only when we are aware of what is happening can we begin to change our world.

We cannot respond to our outer ecological situation in isolation. We cannot heal the symptoms without knowing the cause. Indigenous peoples like the Kogi have warned about this present danger. And yet because our culture has dismissed the inner, it is difficult for us to perceive what is happening. We have even forgotten that the world also has a soul. The anima mundi, the world soul, is no longer part of our collective consciousness, even though for centuries it was understood as the root of everything sacred in creation.

Those of us who have been given a knowing of the sacred within ourselves and within the world have a responsibility at this time. We may ask ourselves, "What can I do?" but the inner world primarily requires consciousness rather than action. It is the lack of an awareness of the sacred that is at the root of this crisis. Therefore we first need to bring the light of our spiritual awareness into the present predicament. We need to recognize what is really happening within the inner world as much as the outer, within our own soul and within the soul of the world. Only then can we begin to redeem the sacred and open the door to any real change or transformation. Only then can we begin to heal the world and bring it back into balance.

For more on Spiritual Ecology, see http://www.workingwithoneness.org/spiritual-ecology.

Read more »
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)