{"id":914859,"date":"2026-10-03T16:46:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T16:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/914859\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T16:46:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T16:46:11","slug":"we-want-action-fijian-climate-activist-sends-message-ahead-of-un-talks-in-pacific-fiji","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/914859\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We want action\u2019: Fijian climate activist sends message ahead of UN talks in Pacific | Fiji"},"content":{"rendered":"

From her wooden veranda in Fiji\u2019s remote Yasawa islands, climate activist Lavenia Naivalu remembers when the reefs were once so healthy, her grandfather would walk to the shoreline and return with fish. But life there has changed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reefs that the older generation of men spearfished in, no longer provide what they once did,\u201d the 44-year-old says. \u201cYoung people \u2026 now must travel further out to sea to find fish for their families.\u201d<\/p>\n

As she looks out at a white sandy beach, eaten away by rising sea levels, Naivalu recounts watching painfully as her three children \u201cfeel the brunt of changes in the climate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI ask myself \u2018what did they do wrong?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Lavenia Naivalu\u2019s home on Nacula in the Yasawa islands is on the frontline of the climate crisis. Photograph: Sera Sefeti<\/p>\n

The question is personal, but it\u2019s also part of what drives her pursuit of climate justice for Pacific people, whose way of life is being threatened as the planet warms.<\/p>\n

At this year\u2019s UN climate talks, known as Cop31, the region will be in the spotlight like never before. Next week, Fiji will host leaders ahead of the climate summit, where Naivalu hopes to draw attention to Indigenous and Pacific perspectives which she says are often relegated in global negotiations.<\/p>\n

The Pacific Islands are disproportionately affected by the climate crisis, despite accounting for just 0.02% of global emissions, according to the United Nations<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing that triggers me is when somebody else is speaking on my behalf,\u201d she tells the Guardian. \u201cI want to amplify the voices of my community and the people that I represent directly to all leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n

Naivalu, an Indigenous representative participating in the Fiji meeting and the Cop31 summit in Turkey, has been a trailblazing advocate for her people.<\/p>\n

She was Fiji\u2019s first female mata ni tikina, or district representative, overseeing seven village chiefs under the traditionally male-dominated governance system. Naivalu was also the first Indigenous representative selected to Fiji\u2019s tourism board.<\/p>\n

A veteran of past Cop summits, Naivalu \u2013 who lives on the island of Nacula in the Yasawa islands \u2013 says bringing the climate talks home matters, but she wants discussions to move beyond language that people do not see reflected in their daily lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe talk about climate change, climate finance, about adaptation and mitigation,\u201d she said. \u201cBut my people in Nacula don\u2019t know what climate finance is; what we want to know is action.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the frontline of the crisis<\/p>\n

Turkey and Australia agreed last year that the Pacific would host preparatory meetings before Cop31 under a compromise deal<\/a> to resolve a standoff about where the 2026 summit would be held. The summit will be hosted in Turkey\u2019s Mediterranean resort city of Antalya in November, while Australia will chair negotiations.<\/p>\n

Sivendra Michael, Fiji\u2019s permanent secretary for environment and climate change, said Naivalu \u201ccloses the distance between negotiating room and the reef.<\/p>\n

\u201cFiji will go into Cop31 arguing for direct access to finance, for adaptation that is actually delivered at community level, and for Indigenous knowledge to be treated as evidence rather than decoration,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are asking the world to trust Pacific leadership. That argument is far stronger when Pacific leadership is not confined to officials like me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having grown up in Nacula village, Naivalu has seen the impact of the climate crisis first-hand.<\/p>\n

\u201cWater sources that used to sustain our village are now drying up, while seawater increasingly threatens the hand-dug wells,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Nacula is doing its best to adapt to climate change \u2013 families now store drinking water for dry periods and women preserve food.<\/p>\n

Women in Nacula prepare food. To contend with more severe dry periods, families must now store drinking water and preserve food. Photograph: Sera Sefeti<\/p>\n

Village chief, Ratu Manasa Naikasowalo, said he sees the value of Naivalu\u2019s advocacy.<\/p>\n

\u201cHer work has helped bring important connections and practical initiatives back to the community, including food security, salt making, coral planting and food-preservation programmes,\u201d Ratu said.<\/p>\n

Naivalu knows adaptation cannot be left solely to frontline communities, and has witnessed the gap between Cop discussions and what happens at home.<\/p>\n

In Fiji next week, she will be bring the lived experiences of Indigenous communities into the Cop31 process, pushing for their voices to be heard as leaders negotiate climate finance, adaptation, loss and damage, and keeping global warming within 1.5C.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t attend Cop to worry about texts and brackets; I attend Cop to forge partnerships with organisations that I believe can help the people of Nacula.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From her wooden veranda in Fiji\u2019s remote Yasawa islands, climate activist Lavenia Naivalu remembers when the reefs were…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":914860,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[64,63,75,128],"class_list":["post-914859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=914859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/914860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=914859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=914859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=914859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}