Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Coral Triangle group gears up for Copenhagen talks

Posted at 03:47 on 20 November, 2009 UTC

The Solomon Islands Minister for Environment and Conservation says the group of Coral Triangle countries has a powerful voice on climate change to take to Copenhagen next month.

Gordon Darcy Lilo has hosted the fifth Coral Triangle Initiative senior officials meeting in Honiara where the group’s member countries, including Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Thailand, the Philippines and East Timor, were also joined by Australia.

The Coral Triangle countries have identified three critical threats to their marine ecosystem: sea-level rise, ocean acidification and coral bleaching.

Mr Lilo says these threats will form the basis of their call for binding targets on carbon emission reduction at next month’s UN climate change summit in Copenhagen.

“We will be urging the world leaders that we must significantly reduce the emission to at least about 50 percent below 1990 levels by 2015. That is what we are urging the developed countries.”

Gordon Darcy Lilo