People on the Frontline of Climate Change

Carteret Islanders Speaking Tour

Newcastle City Hall, 15^th September, 2007

Participants of the public meeting make the following resolutions:

• We call on the Australian government to recognise the existence of environmental refugees, and specifically to acknowledge that the people of the Carteret Islands now require refuge on mainland Bougainville, as their island homeland is becoming inundated by rising sea levels caused by climate change.

• Following this recognition, the Australian Government must provide immediate funding and disaster relief to the Carteret Islanders, in consultation with the Islanders.

• Australia must do everything possible to facilitate culturally sensitive relocation for all people affected by rising seas who want to be relocated.

• In recognition of the profits that Australia has made from coal exports, which have significantly contributed to climate change and rising sea levels, our Government must take responsibility for much of the funding for that relocation.

• We call on the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to officially recognise environmental refugees, specifically the Carteret Islanders.

• Wealthy and industrialised nations, which have contributed the most to the problem of climate change (through fossil fuel use), and which have financially benefited from this, bear responsibility to help those people and nations already being affected by its impacts.

• Australia needs to begin major reduction in our greenhouse pollution, both domestically and of emissions produced from coal exports.

• We ask the Australian Government to formally recognise the current critical plight of the Carteret Islanders at the forthcoming Meeting of Parties to the Kyoto Protocol in Bali in November, and to lobby for international assistance for Islanders in the efforts to relocate to mainland Bouganville.

• We call on the Australian Government to propose an agreement at next year’s APEC forum to “assist countries affected by climate change.”