The Majuro Declaration is an initiative of the Pacific Islands Forum, which was signed on 5 September 2013 at
Majuro
Majuro (; Marshallese language, Marshallese: ' ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Marshall Islands. It is also a large coral atoll of 64 islands in the Pacific Ocean. It forms a legislative district of the Ratak Chain, Ratak ( ...
in the
Marshall Islands
The Marshall Islands, officially the Republic of the Marshall Islands, is an island country west of the International Date Line and north of the equator in the Micronesia region of the Northwestern Pacific Ocean.
The territory consists of 29 c ...
during the 44th Pacific Islands Forum summit. At the summit the leaders of the Pacific Islands Forum nations recognised the need for strengthened national systems to plan for, access, deliver, absorb and monitor climate change and for donor countries to continue to simplify and harmonise their assessment, implementation and reporting processes for financing projects directed to
Following Marshall Islands#Climate change">climate-related emergencies that occurred in the Marshall Islands, Tony de Brum, the foreign minister, called for countries to turn the crises into an opportunity for climate leadership. He demanded a new commitment and international leadership to stave off further climate disasters from battering his country, and other similarly vulnerable countries.
The Declaration referred to the overwhelming scientific consensus regarding the impact of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions on
climate change
Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...
and referred to the recent measurements of greenhouse gas concentrations:
:"On 9 May 2013, atmospheric concentrations measured near the summit of Mauna Loa in Hawaiʻi exceeded 400 parts per million for the first time since measurements began. In crossing this historic threshold, the world entered a new danger zone. Unless we quickly change course, global average temperatures are projected to rise by 4°C or more above pre-industrial levels by the end of the Century, resulting in unprecedented human and environmental impacts".
Intent
The intention of the Majuro Declaration is to spark a "new wave of climate leadership" and to highlight the impact of climate change in the
Pacific
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the cont ...
Ocean. The Pacific Islands Forum secretary general Tuiloma Neroni Slade explained what the Declaration aims to achieve: "So this is a declaration of responsibility. They have pledged to commit themselves as climate leaders and to demonstrate this leadership by attaching in this declaration what each is doing as part of their commitment to ameliorate emissions."
The Majuro Declaration sets out ambitious commitments of the signatories to reduce emissions and their desire to cooperate with other countries, in particular Post-Forum Dialogue Partners, as well as any, "economic entity, company, civil society organization or individual', to "demonstrate climate leadership through action that contributes to the urgent reduction and phase down of greenhouse gas pollution".
20th United Nations Climate Change Conference - 2014
Marshall Islands President Christopher Loeak presented the Majuro Declaration to the UN
Secretary-General
Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, Power (social and political), power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the org ...
Ban Ki-moon during General Assembly Leaders' week from 23 September 2013. The Majuro Declaration was described as a "Pacific gift" to the UN Secretary-General in order to catalyze more ambitious climate action by world leaders beyond that achieved at the December 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference ( COP15). The Declaration was intended to mobilize political will for the 20th COP (2014),FEATURE: Peru will look for global progress on climate change in 2014 Climate & Development Knowledge Network Downloaded 7 September 2013 in order to achieve for a universal, ambitious and legally binding climate change agreement by 2015.
The Declaration notes that global average temperatures are projected to rise by 4.0 °C (7.2 °F), which is a challenge to the 2010 Cancún agreements that state that future global warming should be limited to below 2.0 °C (3.6 °F) relative to the pre-industrial level.
The Majuro Declaration states that "actions under it are intended to complement, strengthen and augment processes under way and commitments already made, including those under the
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is the UN process for negotiating an agreement to limit dangerous climate change. It is an international treaty among countries to combat "dangerous human interference with th ...
and its
Kyoto Protocol
The was an international treaty which extended the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that commits state parties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, based on the scientific consensus that global warming is oc ...
".
Support
Signatories of support of the Declaration includes the United States including the state of Hawai`i.), the European Union and the United Kingdom. Costa Rica, France, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico and Thailand have announced they are "lending their support" to the Pacific Islands, and who are working towards a formal commitment to the declaration.