Press Release Detail

Carbon markets offer a source of opportunity and a distinct lens through which to evaluate and appreciate the crucial role our environment and its services play for island nations like Fiji, who are confronting development challenges that are aggravated daily by the impact of climate change. 
Acting Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Fisheries and Forestry, Atelaite Rokosuka, made the remark today, when she formally opened the inaugural National Carbon Market Strategy Roadmap Consultation Workshop in Suva. 
The one-day workshop was hosted by the Office of the Prime Minister’s Climate Change Division (CCD) and financially supported by the Australian Government with the assistance of the Carbon Market Institute (CMI) who would assist with consultations and technical assessment required for the Government to develop the Strategy Roadmap. 
It is attended by stakeholders from civil society, private sector organisations and Government agencies.
“This inaugural workshop marks the formal launch of the stakeholder consultations that will help us to establish some common waypoints for navigating this complex, yet important new set of tools, concepts and mechanisms proposed to accelerate collaborative actions to reduce carbon emissions globally,” Mrs Rokosuka said.
She said carbon markets offer us an opportunity to derive value from activities that enhance nature through activities that enrich our environment, reduce emissions at source, fund new technologies, and act as a means to complement existing efforts to protect our environment and transition our society to net zero emissions.
However, in light of the escalating climate crisis, Mrs Rokosuka said humanity needed to put a much greater price on carbon and place much higher value on all legitimate opportunities to not only sequester and store carbon but also “wean ourselves off our addiction to carbon emissions-producing activities.”
“Carbon markets offer an incentive for international actors, looking to reduce their emissions profile, to do so in collaboration with us and in so doing, help to create co-benefits which would not be realised or seen as additional if the same activity was carried out in their own country,” Mrs Rokosuka said.
“As great as it all sounds, we cannot simply rely on markets to solve this crisis – these mechanisms can only be seen as complementary to broader efforts to directly reduce emissions at source. Over reliance on markets alone is arguably what has gotten us into the climate change mess in the first place – especially because traditional market economics focuses on supply and demand as the be all and end all. But we know, here in Fiji, that just because something can have demand and can be supplied that it does not mean it is not harmful.”
She thanked the Government of Australia for its financial support to progress this strategic work, Mr John Connor and CMI for their partnership and the CCD team for driving the initiative.