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Climate change forum will not tackle draft EIS on military activities
A climate change stakeholder meeting involving all the insular areas will not tackle a draft environmental impact statement on “live-fire” activities in the CNMI.
The U.S. Insular Areas Climate Change Stakeholder Meeting is slated on June 4 and June 5 in Guam.
According to U.S. Department of the Interior’s Assistant Secretary for Insular Areas Esther Kia’aina, nearly 90 officials from the U.S. territories and Freely Associated States, federal agencies, higher education institutions, and key non-governmental groups, will meet to discuss efforts to develop and strengthen climate change adaptation and resiliency plans and strategies for the insular areas.
Representatives of the U.S. Department of Defense will attend the stakeholder meeting, Kia’aina said.
However, there will be no discussions on a draft EIS on military buildup in the CNMI, particularly Tinian and Pagan.
The draft EIS details military exercises including “live-fire” and bombing activities. The proposed activities have been met with opposition by the CNMI community and its leaders.
“Not at the forum, this is for climate change,” Kia’aina said, when asked on the draft EIS. “But the DoD will be there on two panels, one is on disaster preparedness and two, on a biosecurity plan for Hawaii and Micronesia.”
Kia’aina further explained that the U.S government continues to view climate change as the greatest challenge facing the world today and that all of its the military installations in the world need to start to address climate change.
Attendees
Participating officials will represent Guam, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, and the Republic of Palau.
The CNMI Department of Lands and Natural Resources, meanwhile, confirmed its participation to the climate change meeting.
DLNR Secretary Richard Seman said he will not be able to attend, but the department will be represented by two DLNR officials.
“Climate change has always been important to the CNMI. We have been attending the climate change meeting since 2010,” Seman said.
