Fiji prime minister: Climate change threatens island’s survival

Fiji’s prime minister says climate change poses a major threat to the island nation’s survival as it faces an increasing number of deadly weather systems.

Frank Bainimarama said Fiji is now in “a fight for survival” as Fiji’s islands suffer an “almost constant” string of cyclones, according to the BBC.

“We are now at an almost constant level of threat from these extreme weather events,” the prime minister said Tuesday, following multiple deaths this week from a spring cyclone.

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“As a nation, we are starting to build our resilience in response to the frightening new era that is upon us,” he added.

Cyclone Josie as of Monday had left four dead and one person missing, Reuters reports, as the Category 1 storm brought severe flooding to the nation’s main island of Viti Levu.

Bainimarama is a leading voice for action against climate change and led Fiji to become the first nation to ratify the Paris climate accords. The prime minister also chaired a climate summit in Bonn, Germany, in November where he called the fight against climate change a “fight for our very survival.”

“We need to get the message out loud and clear to the entire world about the absolute need to confront this crisis head on,” the prime minister said. 

The nation of roughly one million people was struck by Cyclone Winston in 2016, that left 44 people dead and thousands without homes.