Investment in adaptation and mitigation to climate change makes good business sense, says Francois Martel, secretary-general of PIDF.
Mr Martel made the comment during the plenary session on Transitioning towards sustainable business in PICs in the India-Pacific Island Sustainable Development Forum in Suva yesterday.
“There is a need for companies to climate proof their operations and companies that act on this vision place themselves in the forefront of sustainable entrepreneurship,” he said.
The secretary-general of PIDF said after world leaders successfully ratified the Paris Agreement, it had become a tremendous catalyst for the success in the sustainable development agenda.
“We saw it at COP21 and again at COP22 and since then businesses and investors have been standing up and sending a clear message that the transition to cleaner energy sources is necessary, inevitable, irreversible and beneficial,” Mr Martel said.
Panellist Christina Leala-Gale, the South Pacific Tourism Organisation (SPTO) manager Sustainable Tourism Development said they had been asked to focus on how India could help PICs reach the level of access to business advice and financial services and promote partnerships that can enable the shift to renewable energy.
“While SPTO has been focused on marketing the Pacific as a tourist destination, the ministers of tourism in the Pacific in 2015 agreed to the establishment of a Sustainable Tourism Development Unit of SPTO bridge the gap between economic development and benefits from tourism with more responsible approaches to managing of our natural resources and our environmental resources sustainably,” she said.
“And we do realise the importance of working together with our development partners, donors, governments as well as the private sector who are very keen to see the development of tourism in this area.”
She said it was understood that tourism was the mainstay of many of our economies.
“And whilst the region has surpassed the two million visitor mark in 2016 we need to look at what is really important if we are to become successful tourism destinations in the future.”
(Source: The Fiji Times Online 27 May 2017)
