I will not just represent Tuvalu at COP27 but also my Pacific Region – Paulo

18 November 2022

“I would like to see countries be more effective and not just recommend more discussions, but rather more actions from their side, whether it is through their commitments to reduce their carbon emissions or commitment and action to pump more funding assistance into mitigation and adapta-tion activities and programmes.”

These were the sentiments shared by the University of the South Pacific Postgraduate student, Moe Saitala Paulo who is representing Tuvalu at COP27 this week.

Ms Paulo said, “I grew up in Tuvalu where everywhere you go, you are surrounded by the beach and sea but this beautiful life, is fast becoming our doom as the ocean continues to encroach our shores a little more each year.”

She added that talking to her people about the importance of such meetings like COP can be difficult as the challenge is showing how they would convert corporate negotiation processes to the grassroot level.

“So I think the simplest way to explain it to my people is just to say that with COP and its processes, is a platform where we can raise these kinds of issues, and can get help in terms of technical and financial, and even capacity buildings within government sectors, NGO’s as well as individuals”.

While these negotiations are taking place Ms Paulo also acknowledged the work that continued at home to help address issues around climate change.

“We have our traditional knowledge on what we can do to help ourselves mitigate and adapt to the rising sea level, however, our traditional knowledge is not as effective as they were back in the days,” said Ms Paulo.

Ms Paulo said that during the two-week meeting at COP27, her focus was to create more conversations on the need to have as many people actively participating in this COP negotiations and for her to be there representing not just her people, but the Pacific Region.

Ms Paulo is one of four students attending the 27th Conference of Parties who have been funded by the European Union Intra-ACP GCCA+ Pacific Adaptation to Climate Change and Resilience Building (PACRES) programme at USP.