Catching the last wave

Our guest for this episode of "Catching the last wave" is Mr. Broderick Menke, RMI's National Adaptation Plan (NAP) Coordinator.

Broderick graduated from the Chaminade University of Honolulu in Environmental Science and he is currently working at the Climate Change Directorate with the Ministry of Environment in the Republic of the Marshall Islands.

His experience includes conservation and natural resource management. He is currently working as the National Adaptation Plan Coordinator and was part of the RMI delegation at COP26.

His role at the COP26 was to present the RMI NAP process and introduce new ways of sustainable adaptation planning while following the adaptation tracks during the Glasgow negotiations.

On this episode with Broderick, we focused on his thoughts and impressions on the Glasgow Summit held in November and what it meant for Pacific Small Island Developing States(SIDS). His first-hand experience will give us insights into the outcomes of this decisive event, especially on what still needs to be done to address the climate crisis, especially in the Pacific region.

Our guest for this episode of "Catching the last wave" is Hon. Seve Paeniu, Tuvalu's Minister of Finance. 

Hon. Seve started his career as Assistant Planning Officer with Tuvalu's Ministry of Finance in 1988 and became the Ministry's Director of Planning in 1989. His long political career includes serving as Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education and Sports and in the Ministry of Finance, Economic Planning and Industries. Hon. Paeniu also served as Tuvaluan High Commissioner to Fiji in 2006. His experience includes also working in the Pacific with regional and international organizations such as SPREP, PIFS, UNDP and UNESCAP. Before being appointed as the Minister of Finance in 2019, he served as the Head of Secretariat of the Oceania Customs Organisation (OCO) from 2015 to 2019.

As Hon. Paeniu led the Tuvalu representation at COP26, on this episode we will focus on his thoughts and impressions on the Glasgow Summit held last month. His first-hand experience will allow us to better understand the outcomes of this decisive event, especially with regard to the Pacific region. 

Our guest for this episode of "Catching the last wave" is Dr. Mahendra Kumar, a senior climate change specialist with wide experience in climate change, development, energy and environment programs in Asia-Pacific and Africa.

He is currently Honorary Associate Professor at the Institute of Climate Change, Energy & Disaster Solutions (ICEDS),  Fenner School of Environment & Society, ANU, Canberra, and Honorary Research Fellow with the Pacific Centre for Environment & Sustainable Development, USP. He has a distinguished career as an academic, as well as working for governments, regional and international organisations on technical and policy issues in climate change. He is on the UNFCCC Roster of Experts and regularly participates in reviews and assessments of national and technical reports . He continues to represent governments and civil society organisations at UNFCCC and IPCC meetings.

With Dr. Mahendra, we focused on the latest IPCC report and especially what does it mean for the Pacific region. We also talked about the strategies of Pacific Small Island Developing States to advocate on key priorities at international climate negotiations and the specific demands leading up to COP26 in Glasgow.

Our guest for this episode of "Catching the last wave" is Gladys Habu, a passionate young climate advocate from the Solomon Islands.

Gladys has campaigned for years at the local, regional and international levels to increase awareness of the impact of climate change. Her climate work has been focused on amplifying the voices of those directly affected by climate change, particularly in ensuring that Small Island Developing States are engaged in global discussions on important environmental issues. Her climate work was recognized earlier this year by Her Majesty the Queen and she became the 168th Commonwealth Point of Light awardee. Gladys is a Pharmacy Honours graduate from Monash University and works as a full-time Pharmacist at the Solomon Islands National Referral Hospital. She is also a UNICEF Pacific Ambassador, focused on improving child and maternal health through her work around nutrition, immunization, climate change and also the prevention of COVID-19.

With Gladys, we explored how climate change is affecting the security and well-being of people and communities in the Pacific. Don't miss her personal powerful story and find out what can be done to ensure a sustainable future for all of us!

Our guest for this episode of "Catching the last wave" is Honorable Bikenibeu Paeniu, former Prime Minister of Tuvalu and currently a consultant for the Tuvalu Climate Action Network (TuCAN) and technical advisor for the Ministry of Agriculture.

Honorable Bikenibeu was the youngest ever Prime Minister of Tuvalu at the age of 33, as well as the first Tuvalu Prime Minister to sign the UNFCCC and the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) in Rio in 1992. He was the lead UNDP consultant to review the Constitution of Tuvalu - the supreme law of Tuvalu which also highlights the need to safeguard the rights of Tuvaluans over their Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the event Tuvalu is fully submerged under the sea level. Hon. Bikeni was also the lead consultant who prepared Tuvalu’s current National Strategy for Sustainable Development 2021 to 2030 (locally known as Te Kete) highlighting climate change as a challenge to sustainable development.

Together with Hon. Bikenibeu, we explored what climate security means for Tuvalu and what can be done to ensure the survival of its people. He gave us unique insights into how climate change is threatening the present and the future of his country and our planet and urged global leaders to commit to ensuring a sustainable future for all of us. 

Enjoy! 

In this episode of “Catching the last wave”, we are honored to host the General Secretary of the Pacific Conference of Churches (PCC) Reverend James Bhagwan.

PCC is the region's peak ecumenical body with 33members churches and 10 national councils of churches across 19 Pacific Island States and territories – accounting for some 80 percent of the Pacific’s human population.

Togheter with Padre James, we explored the most urgent climate-related security issues in the Pacific and what can be done to address them at the local, regional and global level. Reverend James gave us a unique perspective of human security and climate change, focusing on the role of the Church not only in advocating environmental issues but also in finding practical solutions to those challenges. 

Enjoy!

In this episode of “Catching the last wave”, we are honored to talk to a Pacific climate change expert and regional and global climate change advocate Ms. Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner. 

Kathy is a Marshall Islander poet, performance artist, educator. She received international acclaim through her poetry performance at the opening of the United Nations Climate Summit in New York in 2014.

Her writing and performances have been featured by CNN, Democracy Now, the Huffington Post, NBC News, National Geographic, and more.

Kathy also co-founded the youth environmentalist non-profit Jo-Jikum dedicated to empowering Marshallese youth to seek solutions to climate change and other environmental impacts threatening their home island.

Kathy has been selected as one of 13 Climate Warriors by Vogue in 2015 and the Impact Hero of the Year by Earth Company in 2016.

Together with Kathy, we will explore how climate change affects people’s safety and security in the Republic of the Marshall Islands, with a particular focus on the impacts on vulnerable groups and on the importance of including them in climate actions.

In this episode of “Catching the last wave”, we had a conversation with the Director of the Institute for Climate, Energy & Disaster Solutions at the Australian National University and Vice Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Professor Mark Howden. Mr. Howden was on the US Federal Advisory Committee for the 3rd National Climate Assessment and a member of the Australian National Climate Science Advisory Committee. He regularly contributes to several major national and international science and policy advisory bodies and has worked on climate variability, climate change, innovation and adoption issues for over 30 years in partnership with many industry, community and policy groups via both research and science-policy roles.

Mr. Howden has over 420 publications of different types. He helped develop both the national and international greenhouse gas inventories that are a fundamental part of the Paris Agreement and has assessed sustainable ways to reduce emissions. He has been a major contributor to the IPCC since 1991, with roles in the Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth and now Sixth Assessment Reports, sharing the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with other IPCC participants and Al Gore.

In this interview, Mr. Howden tells us about the current trends on the impact of climate change on human security in the Pacific. His immense knowledge and expertise gave us an insight of why it necessary and even vital to reduce global emissions and provide us with an overview of the most urgent climate security risks in the Pacific and what kind of actions need to be taken by the UN and regional and national policymakers.

In this episode of “Catching the last wave”, we are honored to host the Head of the Climate and Security Policy Centre at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, Dr Robert Glasser.

Dr. Glasser previously served as the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction and a member of the Secretary General’s Senior Management Team.

Before joining the U.N., he was the Secretary General of CARE International, one of the world’s largest non-governmental humanitarian organisations, with over 10,000 staff active in 80 countries. From 2003-2007, Dr. Glasser was the Chief Executive of CARE Australia. Prior to joining CARE, he was Assistant Director General at the Australian Government aid agency (AusAID) where he headed the PNG programme, programmes in South East Asia, Corporate Policy, and the Infrastructure and Environment Group.

Dr. Glasser’s previous work also included climate change science and policy analysis for the US Department of Energy (Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Center for National Security Studies) and research on peace and conflict issues at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at the Australian National University, the Cornell University Peace Studies Program and the Centre for International and Strategic Affairs at the University of California.

Dr. Glasser is on the board of WaterAid Australia, the Queensland Reconstruction Authority and Inclusivo (Santiago, Chile). He was previously the inaugural board chairman of the CHS International Alliance, chair of the Steering Committee for Humanitarian Response, an Advisory Panel member of the Climate Vulnerability Monitor, a member of the Principals Steering Group of the United Nations Transformative Agenda for Humanitarian Action, and a member of the Steering Group for the World Economic Forum project on The Future Role of Civil Society.

In this interview, we explored the importance of addressing climate-related security risks in the Pacific, focusing also on the Australian perspective. Dr. Glasser immense knowledge and expertise allowed us to better understand what climate security means for the Pacific and the rest of the world and the importance of developing risk management strategies and actions.

In this first episode of “Catching the last wave”, we had a conversation with Deputy Secretary-General of the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PIFS) Dr Filimon Manoni. Appointed in 2020, Dr Manoni’s worked with PIFS as International Legal Adviser since 2018, being responsible for providing legal policy advice and analysis on regional issues covered by the Secretariat. Before joining the Secretariat, Dr Manoni served as the Attorney General for the Republic of the Marshall Islands, providing both legal and policy analysis to the Government on regional and international matters, including regional and international treaties and agreements.

In this interview, Dr. Manoni tells us about the importance of addressing climate security in the Pacific and its inclusion in the Boe Declaration. His knowledge and expertise gave us a fascinating insight of what climate-related security risks mean for the Pacific people and how we can strengthen human security by focusing on risk management strategies and opportunities.