COP19 (22/11/13) – Minister Tony de Brum, Minister in Assistance to the President of the Marshall Islands, says he is confident that the Parties will be able to leave the negotiations with pride.

He says people are working into the night to resolve such difficult issues as loss and damage and setting ambitious post-2020 targets which they want Parties committed to before 2015.

De Brum expressed his disappointment in Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott. He says he has extended an invitation to his foreign minister Julie Bishop to visit the Marshall Islands and see the effects of climate change.

He says he is also surprised at Japan’s backtracking because as such a technologically superior country, he feels they should naturally take up the mantle of climate leader.

On the Majuro Declaration, de Brum says it is the Pacific’s gift to the UN. Through this the Pacific Islands hope to bring countries together to combat climate change.

He says the Declaration is proof that the Pacific Islands may be vulnerable to the effects of climate change, but they will not sit there and wait for the tide to come in. They will take the initiative and become climate leaders.