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MARRAKECH, Morocco, Nov. 18 (Xinhua) -- Fiji, the upcoming presidency of a United Nations climate conference, on Friday urged U.S. president-elect Donald Trump to act positively on climate change to avoid "catastrophe."
Fijian Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama called on Trump to abandon the view that global warming was a 'hoax" and to take responsibility in combating climate change.
"A global scientific consensus is that it (global warming) is very real," Bainimarama said.
"We must act more decisively and avert catastrophe," the Fijian prime minister told the closing plenary of the 22nd Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP22).
While Fiji serves as the COP23 presidency, COP23 conferences will be hosted by Germany.
Bainimarama invited the U.S. president-elect to visit Fiji and to see for himself the effects of climate change.
"We in the Pacific, in common with the whole world, look to America for its leadership and for its engagement and assistance on climate change," he said.
"As the second biggest carbon emitter on earth, the United States must take responsibility for contributing to our collective response to this crisis and show leadership at this critical stage," Bainimarama said.
On his campaigning trail, Trump had said he would pull the United States out of the Paris Agreement on climate change and stop funding international climate actions.
