The Pacific voice rang loud and clear when Pacific climate activist Ms Brianna Fruean, took the stage at the opening ceremony of the World Leaders Summit at COP26 in Glasgow today. Sounding the warrior call of Pacific youth, she declared that “We are not drowning, we are fighting.”
Speaking after the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Ms Fruean reminded world leaders that they all have the power at COP26, to be better – “remember that in your meeting rooms and drafting documents are more than just black and white objects’ to remember than in your words you wield the weapons that can save us or sell us out.”
Featured second during the opening ceremony, the Pacific voice was amplified during the special session that featured Antonio Guterres, the United Nations Secretary-General, David Attenborough, as well as the Prince of Wales.
“I felt proud to wear my Sei and carry the light of Pacific people,” said Ms Fruean.
“I hope the world leaders will remember the words and faces of Pacific youth this COP. We have the most to lose but also the most to teach about how to treat the planet with more respect”.
Ms Fruean has had vast experience in working to make a difference having first learnt about climate change while attending the Pacific Climate Change Roundtable in Samoa in 2008 as a child, waiting for her Mother, a former employee of the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP).
Since then, she has presented at the first ever SPREP Pacific Environment Forum in 2011, was part of the Pacific Media Team that provided coverage of the Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development in Brazil in 2012, she was the first SPREP Youth Ambassador in 2015 at 16 years of age and attended her first UNFCCC COP 21 in Paris, France with the SPREP team.
Ms Brianna Fruean was also nominated for the “University of Canterbury Young New Zealander of the Year 2021 – Te Mātātahi o te Tau” Award as her climate activism has continued to grow.
Her statement made to world leaders at the opening of the World Leaders Summit today at COP26 challenged them to do the right thing.
“I don’t need to remind you the reality of vulnerable communities. If you are here today, you know what climate change is doing to us. You don’t need my pain or my tears to know that we’re in a crisis
The real question is whether you have the political will to do the right thing. To wield the right words and to follow it up with long overdue action.”
The High-Level Segment of COP26 will be held from 1 – 2 November. Pacific Island Leaders to present include Hon. Josaia Voreqe Bainimarama, Prime Minister of Fiji, His Excellency Surangel S. Whipps, Jr, President of Palau and Hon Kausea Natano, Prime Minister of Tuvalu.
Hosted in Glasgow, the Twenty-Sixth Conference of the Parties to the UN’s Framework Convention on Climate Change opened on 31 October and will end on 12 November.