Page 24 - IB December 2024

NOV - APRIL: TROPICAL CYCLONE SEASON
NOV - APRIL: TROPICAL CYCLONE SEASON
Climate Change

INDIGENOUS We’re not asking for aid. We’re The 2024/2025 Southwest Pacific Tropical cyclone (TC) Season begins on 1 November

KNOWLEDGE demanding reparations. 2024. TCs have occurred out-of-season in the months of May, June and October.

OVERLOOKED an outcomes document that Pacific activists and global civil For the coming season, normal or above normal TC activity is likely west of and
After the end of COP29 in November, and backlash over
IN CLIMATE society are calling unconscionable, there are those who believe including Vanuatu. For the east of Vanuatu, normal to below normal TC activity is
that the Pacific should just be grateful for the money it’s getting.
The last climate finance goal of US$100 billion a year is now
RESILIENCE TALKS replaced by COP29’s new collective quantified goal of US$300 likely. It is important to keep in mind that it does not take a direct hit or severe TC to
cause considerable damage or life-threatening weather.
billion annually by 2035.
But as a global movement, Oxfam decided to walk into
By Ema Ganivatu COP29 with an ambitious demand of US$5 trillion a year in Stay updated with the latest TC alerts by connecting with your National Met Service.
climate debt and reparations. Why are we so ambitious and why
are the billions that have been committed not enough? After all,
“Indigenous people have been practicing sustainability and US$300 billion a year is a lot of money.
resilience for thousands of years, but this knowledge is often To understand this is to understand the difference between
overlooked.” aid and reparations. We are not asking ‘developed’ industrial
These were the words of Simione Sevudrere, a prominent countries to give us this money out of pity or goodwill, but rather
advocate for indigenous resilience, during a plenary discussion as a debt that is owed.
In a world defined by borders, it can be easy to forget that
at this year’s Global Development Conference, which they are all imagined lines, brought to life only on maps. But
brought together experts, policymakers, researchers, and the land, ocean and atmosphere that we depend on have no
practitioners worldwide. barriers between them. These shared resources, often referred
Sevudredre emphasised the need to recognise and integrate to as ‘the commons’, and their protection and conservation,
Indigenous knowledge, memory, and values into these have always been a shared responsibility. Despite this, several
discussions. countries—often referred to as ‘developed’—have historical
and current outsized contributions to human-induced climate
“I will frame my community in Talanoa, using the quotation change. Their large polluting industries and dependence on
by Eli Riesel, Holocaust survivor, and I quote, ‘Without fossil fuels have caused them to emit and pollute more than
memory, there is no society, no civilization, no future.’” their fair share, the cost of which includes a heating planet,
Sevudredre compared Indigenous memory to a house’s crop failures, rising sea levels, and increased disasters. To be
foundation, saying it supports the community’s perception of clear, this is a price that is overwhelmingly borne by small island
the world in the same way that poles support a roof. developing states (SIDS) in the Pacific and beyond, manifesting
in both costs and losses and damages to their infrastructure,
“Due to colonisation, our Indigenous memory has been homes, communities, and sacred and historical spaces.
silenced,” he said. So-called ‘developed’ industrial countries pollute more than
“Presentations, discourses on climate change and resilience, their fair share, reap the massive profits associated with those
they miss the spiritual and emotional dimension, and it does carbon emissions, and pass on the consequences of the
not fit all,” he added. problem to economically challenged, small island developing
states.
“When we are asked to leave without articulating or So, as delegations representing SIDS and global civil
acknowledging our spiritual and emotional understanding, society gathered in Baku this year to negotiate a new climate
perspectives, and worldview, we will not get any good finance deal, they did so with this understanding and with the
results.” knowledge of the need to confront and challenge the notion of
Referring to the Fijian totems of the sky, land, and water, climate finance – not as aid, but as debt that is owed and that
Sevudredre noted that Indigenous identity is derived from needs to be paid.
This is why our ambitions going in were big and our
these totems, and if they are not looked after, “when they disappointment in the outcomes deep —because we understand
suffer, we also suffer”. that we aren’t just fighting for our survival but for a reframing
This interconnectedness illustrates how climate resilience is of a narrative around climate finance that has become deeply
deeply rooted in indigenous practices and spiritual beliefs, he colonial and inherently unjust —portraying polluting countries as
asserted. white saviours rescuing our climate-destroyed islands instead
Sevudredre said the skill at holding contemporary memory of the debt-entrenching, climate denying, carbon polluters that
they really are. To that, we say, as the famous activist chant
can come at the cost of Indigenous memory. “So, again, to get goes, “Stand up, fight back” – and we will fight back.
communities, Indigenous communities, and communities to
live resilient, the conversation must begin to acknowledge our *Written by Jeshua Hope for Oxfam in the Pacific.

spiritual, emotional, and relational dimensions. Oxfam in the Pacific’s climate justice work is driven by the
“Value is our memory,” he added. PACCCIL programme which is supported by the Australian
The Global Development Conference was organised in government through the Australian NGO Cooperation
partnership with the University of the South Pacific and the Programme.
Government of Fiji. Islands Business was a media sponsor of
Sponsored Content
the event. Sponsored Content
www.sprep.org/climsa

24 Islands Business, December 2024