Bula Vinaka, and good evening.
Excellencies, it is a pleasure to have you all gathered here at the table. I do not wish to keep you long from your meal, and I recognize the great distances you have travelled to join us here in Nadi.
Tonight, before the formal programme begins, we have a chance to simply come together — to reconnect, share perspectives, and enjoy an open and informal conversation amongst friends and colleagues. Such opportunities must never be wasted, and I hope we can use this meal to share our hopes, as well as our concerns, across the table.
So let me say plainly what the Pacific brings to, and asks of this table, and what we hope to progress with your commitment over the days ahead. Three things.
First, as global average temperatures cross the 1.5-degree threshold, it is vital that we can together leave COP31 with a clear agreement on how the incoming overshoot will be curtailed and the 1.5-degree limit protected.
The world has yet to agree a credible path away from fossil fuels. And no one can any longer say the obligation is unclear. Last year, the International Court of Justice unanimously advised that States have binding legal obligations to protect the climate system, and in May the United Nations General Assembly welcomed that advisory opinion. What began as a moral appeal backed by science has now, on the basis of our own agreements as Parties, been confirmed as a matter of law. Here in Nadi, we aim to find the means to comply with our shared obligations, so that course correction can be achieved.
Second, finance that actually arrives. Predictable. Accessible. Fit for purpose, suited to context, and able to reach the community, not just the capital. We need agreement on action to advance the reforms we have discussed and rehashed over the last decade. There are responsibilities that are not being met, and financial arrangements that continue to fail to deliver. We must take forward the plan needed to correct these failures before our solutions are overwhelmed by the very problems they were designed to address.
Third, the ocean. For too long, the ocean has sat at the edge of these negotiations, even though it regulates our climate, feeds billions, and buffers us all from the full brunt of global warming. We are asking that, at COP31, the ocean be given a permanent place through the official negotiation process, perhaps through a dedicated agenda item or through an initiative launched through a cover decision that serves to strengthen ocean-based climate action and the finance needed to support it.
Allow me to close by expressing my gratitude to Australia, our partner in hosting and President of Negotiations at COP31; to Tuvalu, for opening its shores; and to Türkiye, host of COP31 in Antalya, for the seriousness with which it has listened to Pacific priorities.
Fiji has spoken of the Pacific as an Ocean of Peace. Peace, as we understand it, is not merely the absence of conflict. It is right relationship: between neighbours, between generations, and between people and the creation that sustains them. A climate left to unravel cannot be at peace. A climate we protect together can be.
Excellencies, tonight, the talanoa continues around the table.
Welcome again to Fiji and Vinaka vakalevu.