Rarotonga, Cook Islands, 21 August 2023 - The Honourable Mac Mokoroa, Minister for Education, Justice, Youth, and Sports, is heading the Cook Islands delegation to the Pacific Small Islands Developing States (SIDS) High-Level Dialogue on Climate Change convening in Suva from 21 - 22 August 2023, and thereafter to the Climate Change Roundtable being hosted by Australia’s Minister for Climate Change and Energy, the Honourable Chris Bowen, which is also being convened in Suva on 23 August.
The Climate Change Roundtable is in preparation for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) twenty-eighty Conference of Parties (COP 28), which will take place from 28 November – 12 December 2023 in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates.
The COP 28 President Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber has put forth his vision to deliver on the pillars of the Paris Agreement with specific focus on our paradigm shifts, including fast-tracking the energy transition and slashing emissions before 2030; transforming climate finance by delivering on old promises and setting the framework for a new deal on finance; putting nature, people, lives, and livelihoods at the heart of climate action; and mobilising for inclusion.
The two-day dialogue will bring together Leaders and Ministers from the Pacific Islands region to share experiences dealing with climate change in their own national context, as well as regionally, including to focus regional priorities that Pacific-SIDS negotiators can advance heading into COP 28. Also attending the dialogue as observers are Australia, New Zealand, the COP 27 Presidency Egypt team, and COP 28 President of the United Arab Emirates.
Minister Mokoroa is representing Prime Minister the Honourable Mark Brown, who is one of eight Pacific political climate champions confirmed to advocate for the Pacific at COP 28. Prime Minister Brown’s area of responsibility for advocacy on behalf of the Pacific Small Islands Developing States at the November COP 28 is the COP Global Stocktake.
The Global Stocktake is happening for the first time in 2023 and is a fundamental component of the Paris Agreement designed to assess the global response to the climate crisis every five years by monitoring the implementation of the Paris Agreement and evaluating the collective progress made in achieving the agreed goals.
Supporting Minister Mokoroa is Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Immigration (MFAI) Director of the Pacific and Regional Affairs Division, Antonina Browne, and Office of the Prime Minister Director of Climate Change, Wayne King.