That the peoples of the Pacific continue to speak with one loud voice when it comes to climate action and climate justice is of utmost importance not only for the PICs themselves, but also for the rest of the world. This voice carries significant weight in the international climate discourse and politics. We desperately need it.

The “state of the planet is broken”. This was the UN Secretary General’s succinct summation of the situation humankind finds itself in today. In his speech of 2 December on the global climate change emergency and the dramatic deterioration of the environment, he listed some of the most important facts which illustrate the severity of the current climate and environmental crisis: “The past decade was the hottest in human history”; “Carbon dioxide levels are still at record highs – and rising”; “We are headed for a thundering rise of 3 to 5 degrees Celsius this century”; “As always, the impacts fall most heavily on the world’s most vulnerable people. Those who have done the least to cause the problem are suffering the most”.

COVID-19 has changed the global landscape. One of the side effects is that air pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions have been reduced as a result of restrictions on economic activity and the movement of people around the world. This has led to an advocacy to create a more sustainable and healthy society through the recovery process, in other words, a "green recovery”.

October 19 2020 will showcase some of the sharpest minded high-level individuals from the Pacific Islands, who will be sharing their extensive and rich experiences living in their own country and fighting daily the impacts of climate change. Two of the speakers are former leaders of their country, Honourable Enele Sopoaga and former Kiribati President His Excellency Anote Tong. Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat Climate Change Advisor Mr Exsley Taloiburi and Climate Change Activist and Poet Ms Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner from the Marshall Islands will complete the panel. The October 19 online forum is the first of a series of online forums on the topic of climate change and sovereignty. The hope is to bring to light the indigenous knowledge and experiences that are vital to understanding why sovereignty in the Pacific is unique, and why it is different to the notion of sovereignty being perpetuated by the Westphalian version of sovereignty which we are starting to see as a concept that needs to be decolonized.