News & Announcements

      In a boost for Pacific Islands such as Tuvalu under threat from rising seas, Commonwealth nations agreed on Saturday that a nation's maritime boundaries should remain fixed even if climate change causes small island states to be submerged. In a new Ocean Declaration, Commonwealth leaders "affirm that members can maintain their maritime zones" under the law of the sea and that the rights that flow from them continue to apply, regardless of physical changes connected to climate change related sea level rise. Read more at RNZ International/Pacific news In another RNZ report, Tuvalu's Transport, Energy, and Communications Minister Simon Kofe has expressed doubt about Australia's reliability in addressing the climate crisis. He said that there is a sense of responsibility on Tuvalu, being at the forefront of the impacts of climate change, to continue to advocate for stronger climate action and to talk to its partners. Read more at RNZ International/Pacific news   Image: Ridha Arianta/shutterstock.com    

  Several Pacific island nations are ramping up pressure on Australia over climate change during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Samoa, declaring that Canberra must phase out fossil fuel exports to help ensure their survival. Among the leaders at CHOGM, the Tuvaluan prime minister, Feleti Teo, told a press conference in Samoa's capital Apia that the current policies of major polluters represented a "death sentence" for his country. Read more at RNZ International/Pacific news. Photo credit: Michael Coghlan/wikicommons          

  A UN General Assembly First Committee resolution tabled last week seeks to mandate an international independent scientific expert study of the effects of nuclear war. The last such UN study was in 1988, more than 30 years ago. The UN resolution “Nuclear War Effects and Scientific Research” is sponsored by Ireland and New Zealand, and has a significant number of cosponsors. The resolution seeks specifically to establish a panel of 21 scientific experts, to be appointed by the UN Secretary-General following nominations from Member States and a public call for candidates, to conduct a new UN General Assembly mandated study on the potential effects of nuclear war. The panel would be charged with “examining the physical effects and societal consequences of a nuclear war on a local, regional and planetary scale, including inter alia the climatic, environmental and radiological effects, and their impacts on public health, global socio-economic systems, agriculture and ecosystems, in the days-weeks-decades following nuclear war, and that it reviews and commissions relevant studies, including modelling where appropriate, and publishes a comprehensive report, makes key conclusions, and identifies areas requiring future research.” Some of the background and key points for the UN resolution are in this article: Zia Mian, “Nuclear War Effects and Scientific Research: Time for a 21st Century UN Study”. The Princeton Program on Science and Global Security (SGS) did a special event in support of the resolution at the United Nations First Committee on Disarmament and International Security on 9 October -- “Expert panel on nuclear war impacts and the role of the scientific community”. The event was organized together with the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, and the UN missions of Ireland and NZ. Izumi Nakamitsu (UN Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for Disarmament Affairs) delivered the opening remarks at this panel. In the 2020/2021 fiscal year, the US Congress asked the National Academy of Sciences to do a study on nuclear winter (the first such study since the 1980s). It has not yet been published. Photo credit: shutterstock.com        

  Hearings are set to begin at the International Court of Justice on 12 December 2024 on Vanuatu's push for states to clarify their legal obligations to combat climate change and protect vulnerable communities. A record-breaking 100 oral statements are scheduled to be presented, with Vanuatu's arguments scheduled for 12 December. Read more from RNZ international/Pacific News. Photo credit: shutterstock.com        

Director's Statement on the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize by Kevin P. Clements The Toda Peace Institute congratulates Nihon Hidankyo for being awarded the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize.  Nihon Hidankyo is an organisation of Hibakusha from Hiroshima and Nagasaki. They have long argued for a world free of nuclear weapons using their own tragic experience and suffering to argue strongly for a total taboo on the production, distribution or use of nuclear weapons. The announcement comes ahead of next year’s 80th anniversary of the atomic bombings on the two cities, which killed a combined estimate of 210,000 people. As a Japanese Peace Research Centre, the Toda Peace Institute, welcomes the award to a Japanese organisation and looks forward to cooperating with Nihon Hidankyo and its co-chair Toshiyuki Mimaki in our common cause of ensuring that nuclear wars can never be won and must never be fought. Nihon Hidankyo, which means the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, dates back to 1956. It was originally aimed at campaigning against the 1954 Bikini Atoll hydrogen bomb test that exposed the crew of the Fukuryū Maru No. 5 to radioactive fallout. It is right and proper that the Nobel Committee award their 2024 prize to this organisation.  The few remaining survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki will not be around forever to give personal eye witness accounts of the indiscriminate use of such weapons on civilian populations.  It is good, therefore, that they have been honoured for their anti-nuclear witness. Because Russia and other countries have started to erode the nuclear taboo by threatening the use of such weapons in Ukraine and elsewhere, the Toda Peace Institute stands in solidarity with all Hibakusha and Nihon Hidankyo for constantly reminding us that the use of these weapons is illegal under international law and must never be used in war ever again.   Photo credit: shutterstock.com