Pacific should advocate for Environmentally Friendly Trade Agreements

Pacific should advocate for Environmentally Friendly Trade Agreements in response to Climate Change issues by Selwyn Toa 

Climate change is a major concern for the Pacific Islands, a region made up of 25 nations and more than 25,000 islands. The region is facing significant threats from sea-level rise and more intense weather patterns, which can lead to saltwater inundation of crop land and contaminated drinking water for communities living on low-lying atolls. The Pacific Islands are also among the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, despite contributing only a small fraction (less than 0.03%) of the world's total greenhouse gas emissions.

Climate activist Selwyn Toa, a member of the MWT board, has proposed using international trade as a way for Pacific Island leaders to advocate for environmentally-friendly trade agreements in order to combat climate change. In an article he wrote on the subject, Toa highlighted the fact that the Pacific Islands are often overlooked in discussions about climate change, with developed and industrialized countries more concerned about their own economies than about the impacts on the Pacific Islands. Toa also called on all nations to respect the sovereignty and right to self-determination of the Pacific Island nations, and to allow them to develop and implement their own security strategies without undue coercion.

Read below the article he wrote a few years ago: