A Tongan noble representative has come away from a series of United Nations meetings in New York hopeful the organisation is actively dealing with climate change.
United Nations headquarters in New York. Photo: RNZ / Alexander Robertson
Lord Fusitu'a addressed a Commonwealth Secretariat meeting on climate change-induced migration on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly last week.
He was also part of the Tongan delegation to a number of UN workshops and meetings and says it was good to see a focus on climate change-related issues.
Lord Fusitu'a said discussions around the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs, were particularly pleasing.
"The very first meeting was focussed entirely on SDG 14 and particularly on how it impacts on the oceans of the world, which is extremely relevant to Oceania and therefore the Pacific. It's encouraging for me that there has been a focus on this matter which impacts on us in the Pacific on a daily basis, in a very tangible manner."