Suchergebnisse

Commentary: During 2017, Fiji is president of negotiations under the United Nation's Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It is the first time the talks have been headed by a small island developing country, and Fiji's Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama plans to use the 23rd Conference of Parties to highlight the impacts of climate change on island states. Even as Pacific island leaders demand greater action to reduce emissions, the Australian government is supporting new coal mines at home and a dramatic increase in coal exports. This commentary focuses on Pacific leadership in the global fight to avoid catastrophic changes to the climate system. It suggests determined diplomacy by island states may help shift international opinion in favour of urgent action to reduce emissions. However, Pacific states must first shine a spotlight on their recalcitrant neighbour, and avoid being silenced by Australian 'climate diplomacy'.

AbstractWhen the Pacific Islands Forum was established in 1971, regional economic integration was high on the policy agenda. Over the four decades since, a political commitment to regional integration has waxed and waned. This paper explores past and present prospects for economic cooperation through the lens of regional trade negotiations. Into the new millennium, Pacific governments lobbied World Trade Organisation (WTO) members to recognise their trade‐related challenges, and sought special treatment in trade negotiations with the EU and with Australia and New Zealand. Despite these efforts, current trade negotiations among all Forum members—to extend the Pacific Agreement on Closer Economic Relations (PACER‐Plus)—look unlikely to result in unique measures intended to help Pacific states take advantage of international trade. In this context, consideration should be given to downscaling formal trade negotiations in favour of other regional trade policy initiatives.

AbstractThe term "green growth" and its sister concepts, "blue‐green growth," the "green economy," and the "blue‐green economy," have gained considerable traction in the Pacific island region in a short space of time. Pacific island governments, regional organisations, and development agencies all use the terms, which originate outside of the Pacific. What (and who) has driven the adoption of green growth terminology within the region? How has its usage in the region mirrored international usage? This paper presents findings from research on the vernacularisation of green growth terminology in Fiji and Vanuatu. We find a contested policy space, where Pacific actors deploy competing meanings of green growth terms in ways that both reflect their worldviews and support their agendas. This diversity has helped to underpin the rapid spread of green growth terminology in the region, while differentiating it from international usage.

The management, governance and control of the world's oceans have become major policy and research agendas. Nowhere is this more the case than in the Pacific Ocean, the world's largest ocean. The world wants Oceania like never before. ; This report was commisioned by School of Government, Development and International Affairs