Palau President Surangel Whipps said New Zealand government is going backwards on climate change after its plan to to overturn its ban on new offshore oil and gas exploration.
Several NGOs and leaders highly criticized the New Zealand government’s decision during the COP 28 summit.
Whipps told Radio New Zealand that New Zealand as part of the Pacific Island Forum should be a leader towards advocating for a healthy planet.
“What a backward position that an island that is part of the Pacific Island Forum that should understand the challenges that we’re facing,” Whipps Jr said.
“New Zealand as a Pacific Island and a member of the forum should take a leadership role and should be active in doing all they can to transition away from fossil fuels. That’s what they should be working on,” he said.
“They shouldn’t be going out and exploring more gas and oil.”
He said that if there is any country that should understand what Pacific island nations are going through with the climate crisis, it should be New Zealabd.
As a Pacific island country. I believe that New Zealand should understand better than any other country in the world the Pacific islands’ challenges,” Whipps Jr said.
“We have Marshall Islands, Tuvalu, Kiribati, all their islands are less than two metres above water.
“I mean, if you’re a Pacific island nation, and you don’t understand that, I don’t know, I don’t know how, what else we can say.
“It’s just tragic to be hearing these kinds of actions by the New Zealand government.”
New Zealand has been named the much-loathed “Fossil of The Day” at the COP28 climate change conference in Dubai after its decision to allow offshore oil and gas exploration.
Advocacy group the Climate Action Network (CAN) gave New Zealand the award for the new government’s decision to overturn a ban on offshore oil and gas exploration.
The ban on oil exploration the ban put in place by Jacinda Ardern’s Labour-led government in 2018.
The new Prime Minister of New Zealand, Christopher Luxon, has promised to repeal the ban and open up the country’s waters to oil exploration once again.