Amplifying our Pacific Voice - Hear Us, See Us, Work with Us

“Real” Pacific voices shared from three different perspectives was the focus of a special session at COP26 that some may call an armchair discussion, but we in the Pacific, call it a talanoa.

Held at the Moana Blue Pacific at the Twenty-Sixth Conference of the Parties to the UN’s Framework Convention on Climate Change in Glasgow, the event united the work of three different areas of the Pacific – Religion, NGO and Academia.

While some may call it an “armchair discussion” we in the Pacific call it a “talanoa,” and the facilitator of this conversation was Ms Tagaloa Cooper, Director of Climate Change Resilience of the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP).

We bring you highlights from our three speakers, Ms. Lemaima Va’ai, Methodist Church in Samoa, Pacific Conference of Churches, Ecumenical Enabler for Ecological Stewardship and Climate Justice, Salā Dr George Carter, Research Fellow (DPA) Director Pacific Institute, of the Australian National University and, Mr Maina Talia of the Tuvalu Climate Action Network.

Ms Lemaima Va’ai, on her biggest challenge when it comes to ecological stewardship and climate justice.

“If I was to speak personally not challenges based on here at the COP but based on my engagement with communities is when you are talking about this climate crises and trying to bring in the theological aspect within it sometimes, they like to use The Bible and say that this climate crisis is because of God’s punishment.  But that’s not the case and so it’s really hard to bring in that the aspect - trying to show that it’s not because of God’s punishment but because of human action that has caused it.  For me it’s trying to get our Pacific communities to shift their mindset to it.  This is the challenge I face on this journey of sharing the voice of the voiceless.”

Salā Dr George Carter, Research Fellow (DPA) Director Pacific Institute, of the Australian National University

“We hear this work over and over again – moral diplomacy, the Pacific islands provide the moral compass and that is in fact one of the greatest legacies of the Pacific Island states in international politics.  That they set the agenda in terms of environmental integrity, sustainable development in terms of issues pertaining to small islands states that they are able to set the agenda and say look this is where we need the attention.  But beyond agenda setting we have seen this over and over within the last 30 years of the UNFCCC that Pacific Islands states leaders, negotiators, as well as NGOs are all part and parcel of this great project.  We understand at the UNFCCC there are parallel meetings happening at the same time and as we move from Paris, it really needs all different partners to participate in amplifying through a consolidated voice.”

Mr Maina Talia of the Tuvalu Climate Action Network

“The people in Tuvalu do not want to move and I think that is the basic message they have been trying to communicate in the past years that we should not look into migration as part of the solution but that we should look into other alternatives and ways that we can maintain who we are as Tuvaluans, and Pacific Islanders.  In the Pacific over 90% are Christians, religious peoples, and we always fall back to our theological conscious when it comes to issues such as climate change or sea level rise and we always tend to look into The Bible and the story of Noah as default text, but I think we should move and change the narrative try to look into the story of the Good Samaritan, what does it mean to be a neighbour in this geo-political setting in the Pacific and how we can we relate South and North as neighbours.  How do we treat our Pacific neighbour?”

To view the full talanoa held at Moana Blue Pacific please visit the SPREP YouTube page. 

The Amplifying our Pacific voice:  hear us, see us, work with us event was held at the Moana Blue Pacific at COP26 on 4 November 2021 from 7.20 – 8.25pm Glasgow time.

The Twenty-Sixth Conference of the Parties to the UN’s Framework Convention on Climate Change is held in Glasgow from 31 October to 12 November 2021.