00:02What the people of Tuvalu hope when the leaders come here, some of them arriving later this
00:07afternoon and some arriving tomorrow, is that through their eyes, the people of the world
00:12will see what it actually looks like, feels like, here on the front lines of climate change.
00:19The multi-talks does happen between Nandi and Funafuti, and the idea is that the outcome
00:26will address three major points, the first one of which is that the people of the Pacific
00:31require of the rest of the world a better effort at halting global warming at 1.5, the second
00:38of which is a better, a more firmer conversation and structure around climate financing for
00:46the people of the Pacific, and the last goal or priority in terms of what should come out
00:51of pre-Cop, is a better integration of the ocean and the climate change conversation
00:57ahead of COP31 in Turkey, just a month away from now.
01:03So we expect that Anthony Albanese will feature very strongly in some of these conversations
01:09that the Pacific have for him.
01:11Now, Lethe, I know that you've spoken to Tuvalu's Prime Minister.
01:14What's his message to big emitters?
01:17I think the message from Tuvalu's Prime Minister Honourable Feletti Teo is quite simple.
01:22Here in the Pacific, specifically here in Funafuti, a low-lying atoll nation, the conversation
01:30of climate change is about survival.
01:32And he talks very carefully, almost directly at the Australian Prime Minister and the ministers
01:38who are here from the carbon-emitting countries, that their decisions to continue to issue licences
01:46on fossil fuels extraction means a death sentence for Tuvalu.
01:50Here's a little bit more of what he had to say.
01:53For us, it's not a financial conversation or an economic conversation.
02:00It's a matter of survivability for us.
02:06So we cannot wait until they are in a situation to sort out the economic situation.
02:14And Lethe, what are people in the Pacific telling you about climate change ahead of this meeting?
02:20In a word, cries.
02:23They're asking that the people of the world hear their cries and do something about it.
02:27Here in Tuvalu, the conversation is a little bit more than that.
02:31They want the leaders to see what it looks like on the front lines of climate change,
02:35but also the visits that the leaders will go on will include a newly completed reclamation area
02:43where the new parliament of Tuvalu is meant to sit, but also maybe an airport and other essential infrastructure.
02:50And the idea behind that is to show the world, particularly those who partner with the Pacific
02:56in terms of climate change mitigation and adaptation, what is possible when the traditional knowledge
03:02of the peoples of the Oceanic Islands and the science and data and tech from outside of the region is
03:09merged.
03:09But what we're hearing is a desperation, a requirement that the rest of the world do more
03:15and do better for the peoples of the Pacific who live on the front lines of climate change.
03:20Thank you very much.
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