Fiji will be organizers of next climate conference in Germany

The 23rd edition of the Conference Of Parties (COP 23) will take place in Bonn, Germany by the end of 2017, according to the Morocco, chairman of the COP22 and the Fijian authorities.

The two nations on Friday announced that Fiji, the archipelago of the pacific will be organizers of the conference but due to their inability to accommodate up to 20,000 people on one site,the COP23 will take place in Germany for logistical reasons.

Bonn is the seat of the headquarters of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change(UNFCCC), under whose auspices international negotiations among more than 190 countries will be taking place .

“It’s a big responsibility for a small island State,” said Frank Bainimarama, the Prime Minister of Fiji to the press, on the last day of the COP22 in Marrakech.

As a “Small Pacific island State, we need to show the world the problems that we are experiencing,” continued the Fijian leader, making the link between “climate change and development”.

Small State island

Beside him, Salaheddine Mezouar, president of the COP22, stressed that it was “the first time that a small island State, a State of the Pacific organized a COP”.

“Fiji will get all the assistance and support necessary from Morocco to ensure that the COP23 meets all expectations “ and to “continue the dynamics of Marrakech to orient the COP to action and concrete implementation of the Paris agreement”, he added.

Island States are particularly vulnerable to the consequences of climate change like the rise in the level of the oceans/water and the escalation of some extreme weather phenomenons.