Valletta: The Commonwealth was finalising fresh agreements on climate change and turning its focus to tackling radicalisation and corruption on Saturday as leaders retreated to a medieval Maltese fortress for intimate talks.
Prime ministers and presidents from the 53-country organisation were shaping up their plans ahead of next week’s world climate change summit in Paris, on the second day of the biennial Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).
Canada pledged nearly two billion US dollars over five years to help developing countries cope with the effects of climate change, doubling its previous commitment.
“Canada is back and ready to play its part in combatting climate change, and this includes helping the poorest and most vulnerable countries in the world adapt,” said new Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
The Commonwealth was working on finalising a Climate Finance Access Hub, a network aimed at smaller island states that want to get access to funds to mitigate against the effects of climate change, with Australia already announcing it would be putting money in.
The organisation has also come up with a debt swap for climate change action initiative, where developing countries could see their debt written down in return for undertaking projects on improving the environment.
“Thirty-one of our 53 members are small states and 25 are small island developing states, which are most vulnerable to climate change,” said Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma.
“Many of our members are struggling to cope with the devastating effects of climate change.
“Islands in the Pacific and the Caribbean are having to deal with rising sea levels that could drive them from their homelands.”
Britain has committed #21 million ($31.6 million, 29.8 million euros) for Pacific disaster management.
Leaders from the 53 nations headed for their retreat session in Fort St Angelo, a bastion on Valletta’s Grand Harbour controlled by the Sovereign Military Order of Malta and dating back to the middle ages.
The retreat sessions feature just the leaders and the secretary-general: no advisers, press or other ministers are allowed in.
It gives the leaders the opportunity to talk frankly in an informal setting, in keeping with the Commonwealth’s family feel.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and French President Francois Hollande were guests at the summit’s special session on climate change Friday, ahead of a global summit on the issue starting Monday in Paris.
Before Saturday’s closed-doors session, British Prime Minister David Cameron urged his Commonwealth counterparts to be tougher on exposing corruption.
The Conservative leader, who will host a conference on the issue in Britain next year, said corruption was “an evil in itself” and also “exacerbates other global challenges such as poverty and extremism.”
Meanwhile Queen Elizabeth II, the Head of the Commonwealth, was wrapping up her three-day state visit to Malta, the only place outside Britain she has ever called home.
The 89-year-old and her husband Prince Philip, who was stationed on the Mediterranean island as a naval officer between 1949 and 1951, were taking a tour around the Grand Harbour and visiting Malta’s racecourse.
Of the 53 Commonwealth members, 30 heads of government attended the summit, along with three others who are also prime ministers or presidents.
Nineteen countries were represented by a senior cabinet member, mostly foreign ministers, authorised to take decisions on behalf of the government.
Vanuatu, which pulled out of hosting the 2017 CHOGM after Cyclone Pam battered the Pacific island nation in March, was not represented.
The Malta summit will decide on the next summit’s location.
