Kia Orana everyone! I’ve just returned from beautiful Rarotonga.
The conference attendees with the Prime Minister of the Cook Islands
I spent three days there at a conference run by the Climate Action Network. The conference aimed to bring negotiators together to consolidate the message that the Pacific will be bringing to Copenhagen in December this year- so naturally PSP was keen to attend!
The University of the South Pacific (Rarotonga Campus) hosted the conference, which was attended by representatives from Kiribati, Tuvalu, the Federated States of Micronesia, Papua New Guinea, Tokelau, Fiji, Samoa, New Zealand, Australia, and of course, the Cook Islands. The result was a highly diverse group of people of all ages, many of whom had travelled a long way, coming together to work towards a single goal: safeguarding the region’s future against the potentially devastating effects of climate change.
On Day 1, Jim Salinger (a lecturer at the University of Auckland and scientist from the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change) gave several fantastic presentations. This was certainly a helpful way for the non-scientists in the room to consolidate our understanding. Unfortunately, the latest science is painting a very bleak picture, with many projecting that sea levels are set to rise much faster than previously anticipated. This probably contributed to the dedication and hard work displayed by the attendees during the conference.
During the three days, I collaborated with Ben Namakin and Aaron Packard from 350.org to finalise the Pacific Youth Declaration, which was put together by the attendees at the Pacific Youth Festival in Suva recently. Ben and Aaron and I also did a presentation for the conference on the role of youth in the climate change debate- the fact that a room full of such accomplished environmental activists were willing to listen to a presentation on youth is, I believe, testament to the importance of what young people have to say! We also got the chance to chat with some young Rarotongans about engaging their communities in climate activism.
Even though I was pleased and proud of all that had been achieved in such a short space of time, I felt quite sad leaving the island. Rarotonga is an incredible place, and it deeply saddens me to think that due to the actions of nations such as Australia, its future may hang in the balance. Though I learned a lot about climate science, mitigation, adaptation and finance this week, I took away something far more important: a true appreciation of just how much is at stake if we fail.
[...] The Pacific Youth Declaration, drafted by PSP and 350.org, also expresses the incentive of Pacific youth for strong committments to climate change solutions in order to insure the survival of their nations. [...]