International Climate Change Adaptation Initiative Workshop, Brisbane, 17 March 2009

International Climate Change Adaptation Initiative Workshop

Ladies and gentlemen

I'd like to thank the Turrbal People for welcoming us to their traditional lands.

And I thank you all for coming to Brisbane to attend this workshop.

As we meet, people around the world are grappling with two major international challenges. Few governments are not concerned about the impacts of the global financial crisis.

The first is the global economic crisis and the second is climate change.

Right now governments are understandably focused on their public responses to finding immediate and longer term solutions to the economic crisis.

But we mustn't let this stand in our way, and we must not let this diminish our commitment to action on climate change, including helping the world's most vulnerable countries adapt to unavoidable impacts from already locked in changes resulting from climate change.

Climate change is after all, one of the greatest challenges that we will face in our lifetimes.

If not effectively addressed, it has the capacity to permanently affect all of our countries' long-term economic prosperity but also our ways of life.

Australia is acutely conscious of the implications of climate change. And Australians themselves are very aware of the issue with a Newspoll survey in July last year finding that 84% of Australians believe climate change is already occurring.

That is why the very first act of the Rudd Government was to ratify the Kyoto Protocol.

In addition, legislation for an emissions trading scheme to cut Australia's carbon emissions was introduced into our Parliament last week.

Regionally, Australia has supported the climate change work of the Pacific Regional Organisations, contributing to the core and program budgets of SOPAC, SPC and SPREP.

Australia is committed to working with the region to achieve the goals of the Pacific Islands Framework for Action on Climate Change. And is strongly supportive of the Niue Declaration on Climate Change that was agreed by Leaders at Pacific Island Forum meeting in last August.

Australia has also made substantial funding commitments to broader international programs. The International Climate Change Adaptation Initiative, that this current workshop is part of, is one.

We have also made significant contributions to the Least-Developed Countries Fund of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the multilateral Climate Investment Funds and the Clinton Climate Initiative.

A considerable amount of this funding will help developing countries - particularly those in the Asia-Pacific region - to plan and implement programs related to climate change adaptation.

This is a new area for us all and we are dealing with many unknowns.

But the science has become unambiguously clear and we can't shy away from a problem that will only compound if we do nothing.

Sometimes there are folk tales that are used to explain things to us.

The first is the frog metaphor - if a frog in water which is gradually heated up, the frog does not notice and stays in the water until it dies. However if a frog is put in water of the same heat, it jumps out immediately. Humans are sometimes slow to perceive and act - as we have been for climate change.

The second is a Greek myth about Cassandra. She was both blessed and cursed in that she could foretell the future. She warned people of coming catastrophes but was always ignored. She comes down to us in stories as somebody with a great gift but who suffered as her prophecies were never listened to.

That is why meetings such as this workshop are so important. We have not heeded various warnings from our scientific communities'. We need to plan and act collectively so that the resources that are being made available to the region, through initiatives such as this, can be allocated to your countries' highest priorities in an efficient and coordinated fashion.

Your contribution to this workshop, your ideas and your feedback will give us all a better idea of where we should collectively concentrate our efforts and resources.

Australia's relationship with the Pacific

Over the past year, Australia has been working hard to strengthen our engagement with your countries and we look forward to hosting the Pacific Islands Forum in Cairns in August.

In his Port Moresby Declaration of 6 March 2008, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced Australia would take a new approach to our relationship with our Pacific neighbours, by progressively negotiating new Partnerships for Development with Pacific island nations.

The Partnerships commit Australia and our Pacific partners to make faster progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals and other development initiatives - to the benefit of people of the Pacific.

The partnerships are underpinned by mutual respect and mutual responsibility, and are based on good practice in development assistance.

They aim to realise better development outcomes by:

• committing Australia to provide new bilateral assistance over time; and
• embracing commitments from Pacific partners to improve governance, increase investment in economic infrastructure and achieve better outcomes in health, education and other target areas.

Crucial to improving development outcomes is the wholistic consideration of the impacts of climate change across all sectors - including health, agriculture and infrastructure - to ensure that national development planning will be sustainable into the future.

Partnerships for Development have already been signed with Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Kiribati and the Solomon Islands. All of these Partnerships identify climate change as either a current or future priority.

We also aim to finalise other Partnerships for Development with Vanuatu, Tonga, Nauru and Tuvalu by the Forum Leaders' Meeting in August.

At the same time, our relationship with Timor - Leste continues to deepen and we look forward to attending the Development Partners meeting in early April.

On a government to government level, we are working towards the difficult task of nation building, peace building and poverty reduction.

And our people to people contacts thrive through exchanges between organisations, churches, schools and many other institutions.

Climate Change in the Pacific

Climate change will be and is a key development issue for small island states and, as I have said, one that Australia takes very seriously.

Effective adaptation requires a strong applied science base. It will require additional resources for investments in adaptive action, and support for communities and sectors of the economy to shift to alternative forms of income generation.

The Asia-Pacific region is one of the most vulnerable to climate change impacts.

Climate change has the potential to delay the progress that countries are making to meet the Millennium Development Goals.

It could make harder existing development challenges, including food and water security, as well as introducing new challenges, such as sea level rise impacting on coastal communities.

I don't want to suggest we are dealing with the boiling water scenario in the frog metaphor, that is with rising sea levels over short period of time.

This is a long-term slow process, that we must deal with proactively and get ahead of the game.

Australia has been working on climate change issues with many of your countries over some years either on a country to country level or regionally.

Together, since 1991 we have collected high quality, long term data on sea level across the Pacific to monitor and plan for changes in sea level resulting from climate change.

Together we are building the capacity of weather services to interpret weather and climate data and to give climate prediction support to industry, government and community stakeholders.

And Australia has provided practical assistance to communities in areas such as increased water storage, crop diversification for food security, and the replanting of mangroves for coastal stabilisation.

In the multilateral arena, Australia supports the Least-Developed Countries Fund and the Trust Fund for Participation of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

In addition, we have pledged $150 million to the World Bank-led Climate Investment Funds have been established to support early, large-scale and transformative investments in climate change mitigation and adaptation. Lessons from these initiatives will also feed into the ongoing discussions on a global agreement on climate change after 2012.

One of the Climate Investment Funds is a pilot program on climate resilience.

This will provide large-scale finance to selected countries and regional groupings to demonstrate how climate change adaptation can be integrated into national development planning.

It has already been agreed that the program should allocate resources for a Pacific pilot and Australia will be working closely with Pacific island countries and the program's governing body to further develop this pilot.

The pilots will examine our effectiveness and are expected to strengthen the ability of countries to plan and implement climate resilient development programs, especially in highly vulnerable sectors such as agriculture and water.

Whatever countries end up doing, effective action will require very good leadership.

In coming months and years, you as individuals and leaders will be asked to make changes in your communities, and also address the will to make changes in our thinking and our practices to adapt to climate change.

Here in Australia, for example, people will need to make decisions about whether money should continue to be invested in locations adversely affected by climate change, or whether it is better to find new livelihoods in other places less affected.

The insurance industry is reflecting on the consequences. These are realities we and our children will be reflecting upon.

And there are countless other scenarios.

As leaders and officials, we will be required to change policies and enforce their implementation.

These changes won't be made lightly or without lively debate in our homes, our communities and in our parliaments.

Returning to the frog metaphor, this will be particularly difficult as many people will say they can't see the changes. In this context, leadership will be important.

As specialists in climate change you will be called on to help resolve similar dilemmas in your countries.

We hope that through the International Climate Change Adaptation Initiative and our broader engagement in the region, we can help with these difficult policy challenges.

Australia has some world recognised expertise in climate change science and adaptation, including in the agriculture, water and infrastructure sectors, which we hope will be of assistance to you. We want to be able to share this knowledge and experience with you in developing mechanisms to adapt to climate change.

Conclusion

I note that you have a very packed schedule over the next few days.

The issues you will be exploring are weighty and require a good deal of thought.

Furthermore, your views on climate change priorities will greatly inform our strategic engagement with the region.

So I thank you in advance for your contribution and wish you all the best for the workshop over the next few days.

Media inquiries: Mr Kerr's office - 02 6277 4991