USP Master’s student hopeful countries will stick to their COP27 commitments

15 November 2022

While growing up, climate change was a concept for Christian Amata-Ali, and a word that many would talk about. It did not take him long to learn that for many people in rural and maritime areas, this was their reality.

This included people in his village back in Oinafa, Rotuma. Christian grew up in Koronivia around the Nausori area in Fiji and this part of his upbringing gave him a lot of appreciation for life and the different struggles people go through.

Attending Marist Brothers High School, he was determined to study medicine, but fate had other plans for him, and he eventually pursued a degree in Environmental Science. This grew Christian’s knowledge of climate change and the threat it posses to people’s livelihood.

Today, the 25-year-old is pursuing his Master’s in science in Climate Change and is one of the four students part of the Pacific Adaptation to Climate Change and Resilience Building (PACRES) programme who is currently participating at the 27th Conference of Parties (COP).

“We’ve had a lot of outcomes from COP 26, and I think one outcome that I am hopeful for at COP 27 would be just climate finance,” Christian stressed.

He added that climate finance was an up-and-coming topic of importance because as much as people would say they wanted to do, without proper financing it was going to be difficult.

Christian was part of a three-day Pre-COP training at USP as part of the European Union-funded intra-ACP GCCA+ PACRES programme to help build capacity and prepare selected USP students for the COP 27 Negotiations in Egypt.

COP 27 is currently underway in Sharm El-Sheikh.