Manawanui destroys strange presence at climate meetings

As rain fell on King Charles’ parade through Samoa, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon spent his first hours on the ground in Apia speaking about the sinking of the Manawanui ship off the south coast of Upolu.

As the King and Queen toured Samoa’s cultural village and inspected a reforestation project in O Le Pupū’Pue National Park, business and government leaders gathered at an invitation-only roundtable at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting.

But before Luxon could participate in its first CHOGM meetings, it had to deal with what it called a “very unfortunate accident,” the ship catching fire and sinking after hitting a reef on October 6.

He stayed away from the sinking site and instead met with the head of Operation Resolution, Commodore Andrew Brown and members of the New Zealand response team at the task force headquarters in Apia.

At a press conference, he told journalists he was not sure whether he would meet with individuals or communities on the stretch of coast where Manawanui is located, nor would he be interested in issues of compensation or an apology.

He reiterated that everyone was relentlessly focused on getting hundreds of thousands of liters of fuel off the ship, and then outlined New Zealand’s support for CHOGM, linking the ship’s role in this week’s event.

“There was a ship here trying to support CHOGM by doing research activities, obviously we have 460 New Zealanders here also supporting CHOGM and we spent 15 million New Zealand dollars supporting it as well.”

Last night, Luxon was in his Hawaiian shirt mingling with CHOGM leaders at a banquet hosted by Samoan Prime Minister Fiamē Naomi Mata’afa.

The British monarch was not present – ​​Luxon will meet him today at a reception for new heads of government.

But the King of Eswatini, Mswati III, was at the table with Fiamē and the British and Australian prime ministers.

King Charles, however, was mentioned by Reverend Dr. Siale Salasulu, who said a prayer before dinner. He blamed British royalty for bringing with them the bad weather as a day of torrential rain and strong winds continued into the night.

It is billed as Samoa’s biggest event, with more than 3,000 leaders and delegates from 56 countries coming together for around 100 meetings, forums and side events with more than 2,000 extra doctors, military and police officers carrying out thorough searches of bags and bodies at the locations of meetings. .

Discussions have ranged from the fight against human trafficking to the high debts of smaller nations and their difficulty in obtaining financing.

An important event was the partnership between the Commonwealth and the World Health Organization, and a collaboration on non-communicable diseases and mental health.

Whatever the topic, almost all discussions at the meetings revolve around the climate emergency and, particularly, its impact on the 25 small island states.

At the launch of the Commonwealth Disaster Resilience Centre, outgoing Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland spoke of her own experience with the devastation caused by climate disasters.

She was in the Caribbean when Hurricane Beryl made landfall this year. It was the most devastation a storm has caused in June, she said.

June was always too early for hurricane season.

“Those days are over. For the first time in our history we had a category five hurricane in the Caribbean in June.

“Traditionally we prepare for disasters, then face them, and then try to recover from them. Now we must do something different.”

Scotland said CHOGM Samoa 2024 came at a defining moment when the effects of climate change are no longer distant threats.

“They are here, on our doorstep, disrupting lives and livelihoods with increasing frequency and severity, especially in the Pacific, where sea levels in some countries are rising four times faster than the global average.”

Countries have faced disasters with limited resources and data.

The Disaster Resilience Hub, she said, is a complete digital solution, a virtual tool that equips each Member State with data, climate financing options and ideas based on indigenous knowledge.

It would allow countries to prepare for and respond to serious crises.

“It was something we dreamed of in 2015, something we certainly hoped to have when disaster struck my home country (Dominica) with Erica in 2015. It’s something we’ve looked forward to every year since.”

Linked to the theme of climate change is the health of the ocean, described this week at CHOGM as the most important natural asset for the Commonwealth.

Of the 56 member countries, 49 have coastlines, a third of the world’s mangroves are along these coasts and 45 percent of the world’s coral reefs are in these waters.

Before they depart tomorrow, leaders will support the Commonwealth Ocean Declaration, which is expected to accelerate funding for a healthy ocean.

The details of this commitment will be outlined following the leaders’ retreat, appropriately on the first day of Samoa’s harvest of the oceanic delicacy, palolo.