Photos by 350.Org

Local climate change activists across the Pacific, delivered letters to ANZ bank management last Thursday November 20 asking them to divest (business boycott) from the fossil fuel industry.

In Tonga, a letter was delivered to Nuku’alofa’s ANZ bank by a young volunteer Taufu’i Naufahu.  

The activists form a regional network known as “Pacific Climate Warriors” associated with the “350.org” climate change movement, an international organisation dedicated to supporting climate change movements at a grass-roots level.

According to 350, ANZ bank has loaned over $6.5 Billion to fossil fuel projects in Australia.

A spokesperson for the campaign, Marshallese Poet Ms. Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner stated “We launched this campaign to call on businesses operating in the Pacific to remove all forms of support from the industry – the fossil fuel industry – that will destroy us,”

“Organizations and financial institutions, such as the ANZ, must align their money with their morals. They need to make socially responsible investments because it is not acceptable to profit from the destruction of our Islands.”

Last month, October 17, thirty ‘Climate Warriors’ from various Pacific Island countries joined in a climate change protest in New Castle, Australia. The protestors used canoes to block the path of a fuel ship carrying coal in New Castle’s harbour.