Climate change, AI in focus at Commonwealth's Oct meet in Samoa

27/3/2024 18:20

        Climate change and efforts to keep up with advances in artificial intelligence top the agenda for a Commonwealth meeting set for the small Pacific Islands nation of Samoa in October, the grouping's secretary general said.
        
        A voluntary club of 56 nations headed by King Charles, the Commonwealth evolved out of the British empire to cover 2.5 billion people, with 11 Pacific nations among its members.
        
        "This is not a threat about extinction tomorrow, many of them are thinking, it is extinction today," Patricia Scotland said of the climate change risks that make small Pacific nations particularly vulnerable.
        
        "If we look at what's happened in countries like Vanuatu and Nauru and all of them, they see this rise in sea level and the rise in temperature as an imminent threat," she said, speaking from the Samoan capital of Apia.
        
        Samoa will be the first Pacific small island state to host the annual Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting, putting the spotlight on climate change.