The Foreign Affairs Minister of the Marshall Islands, a country which suffers a great deal from climate change impact, tell EurActiv's Tanka Milevska what his country needs from the developing world in terms ofdecarbonisationand stronger climate ambitions.

Tony DeBrumis the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of the Marshall Islands

What is the current situation in your country and what are the main challenges youre facing?

We brought Commissioner ConnieHedegaardto the Marshall Islands in September for our Pacific Forum meeting and she saw first-hand what it means to be a small island barely two metres above sea level. Weve going through extended droughts in the North.In the South we were suffering from high tides, which closed down our airport. The situation is affecting food security, its affecting everything. The tides are washing away much of the shoreline in the main populated areas, high tides are wiping out homes and gardens and other public facilities like schools. They are also waking up the dead, literally,undermining the graveyards and exposing the bodies, the skeletons. Recently 26 bodies were exposed. These conditions not only affects the country in physical terms but also in terms of long-term plans for development and keeping up with the requirements for energy and water. Having said all that, here we are trying to work hard on climate change with our big development partners.

What do you need?

We need to clarify what the ambitions are for the big countries. The EU wants to lock in some of the goals for 2030 but there needs to be flexibility to reflect the fact science will get better over time.We think that should be shortened, 2025 is much better than 2030,and that would be something that the EU can easily accept. We are aware that the United States seems to be amenable to such an idea, and if those two agree, the rest of the world would fall in place we think.

Clarification on climate change financinghas been a long time coming. We need to make sure that the vulnerable countries have a way to deal with this threat. To not only safeguard what they have now, but also plan for the future. What happens if this rise in sea levels is uncontrollable? We ought to think about it and discusswhat aspects of development not threatened by climate changewe can secure.

In our own small sort of way, the Pacific Islands have, in co-operation with the EU, been engaged in energy projects that contribute to decarbonising the world, including thesolarisationof the Marshall Islands. We are also talking about solar-to-grid improvements in our main operationcentres, not just theMarshalls, but the Pacific Islands, with assistance from the EU.Were talking about a revamping of our transportation requirements. We need to support our islands with shipping and that requires fossil fuels and when it comes to fossil fuels were at the farthest end of the pipeline that you can be. Weare also at the bad end of the pipeline when it comes to energy production. So we want to try and find solutions to those things with our EU friends.

What are your expectations for the upcoming climate conference in Paris in 2015?

We have to have something enforceable by Paris. We think we have the opportunity and the science and we understand what needs to be done. All we need is a bit more political will to agree that something enforceable and binding must be agreed upon by the Paris meeting.

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Marshall Islands minister: The EU needs shorter-term goals on climate