CSOs on verge to sue big polluters

Caption Pic: PIANGO Executive Director Emily Duituturaga

By MATTHEW VARI

Sunday, September 13, 2015

CIVIL Society Organisations (CSO) have demanded justice from big polluters in the world who they said had as much responsibility in the current effects of the phenomenon.

Executive Director of PIANGO (Pacific Islands Association of Non-Governmental Organisation) Emily Duituturaga also revealed plans afoot to seek legal means to hold them accountable.

“For us in the Pacific it is here and now and is going to happen fast and furious. For our members of the Vanuatu, Kiribas, Tuvalu, Cook Islands, and other countries Climate Action Networks the big issue for us. It is about climate justice,” Duituturaga said.

“Where is the justice? Where is the justice, where those of us who are least responsible carry the greatest burden?”

“As a demonstration of that, on Black Friday the 13th of March when Cyclone Pam hit Vanuatu, Tuvalu, and Kiribati- we as a movement of people decided to get together with Greenpeace and others and we gathered at the Rainbow warrior in Port Vila, and the president of Vanuatu received the Peoples Declaration on Climate justice.”

She said that their declaration called on big polluters to be accountable and refrain from making everyone responsible for their actions.

“There is the thinking that we are all responsible. In the declaration we are calling on especially the biggest polluters to take special responsibility so that we made the call to the countries and companies who have the greatest responsibility.”

“With our colleagues in Greenpeace and PIANGO we have committed to look into the legality and the legal case to take our biggest polluters to court.”

“Because burning of fossil fuels as we know is the biggest contributor and responsible for emissions, and we stand to call on the moratorium on new coals because we also want to see action on this, and we call on the leaders and the Pacific to rally behind the standalone climate change sustainable development goal and certainly as we go to Paris.”