Welcome to the Daily Glasgow Coppuchino. Start each day of COP26 by drinking in a few minutes of warm stimulating conversation about climate resilience. I'm your host Peter Willis from the Resilience Shift. Shall we begin? My guest on this morning's Coppuchino is Ocalani Mariner. Ocalani is a young climate activist in Samoa. She's the vice president and co-founder of the first environmental student body at the National University of Samoa and is a member of the Global Climate Activist Organization 350.org. Ocalani refers to herself as a Pacific Climate Warrior, artist and storyteller. Welcome, Ocalani. I'm thrilled to be talking with you across the globe and delighted to have you with us for this morning's Coppuchino. So I'm curious to know where did all this start for you? What's the root of your commitment to facing up to climate change? You know, Peter, I think I would say it would be legacy and fear. And that's because growing up, I'd always been told stories of the Pacific and stories of navigators who traveled the ocean by stars. And my grandfather was always big on storytelling and remembering where you came from. And so recently he passed away, but before he did, he had always told me to remember my roots. And I remember having an American actually come over and he was talking about the effects of plastic pollution on the ocean, the risk of land loss in the future and the years to come. And I just felt a sudden fear that the culture, traditions, and stories that my people have carried for years would be lost due to climate change. And I think that really spurred my commitment to advocate and fight for climate justice. And if I may ask, what has been your family's response to your wanting to get involved in this? At first, it was a little unsure. And that's because despite climate change being such a big topic because it affects the Pacific Island significantly, they weren't much aware of it when I first started. And so climate activism was fairly new in the Pacific and not because they didn't know about it, but because the term climate change wasn't used, the intensity and frequency of cyclones was more of like a day to day in the Pacific. You know, when you grow up experiencing flash floods and cyclones every year, you just think it's a part of life. You don't realize the significant impact that people are actually doing that created these situations. And so for me to get into climate activism, it was really interesting for them at first. And then they started getting very passionate too because they realized a lot of their lived experiences stemmed from the effects of climate change and this climate crisis. So at first, they were relatively reserved, but now they're very passionate, just like me. I think I've inspired them to really research a little bit more into climate change and climate justice. How is climate change? You said that, I like what you said there about the the normality of storms in your lives historically. And so the notion of climate change has to somehow penetrate your fellow Samoan's consciousness as a new different kind of experience, except it's in the future mainly. What's been the most compelling argument you found to help your colleagues and friends and family and so on in Samoan to change their thinking about the future? I would have to say it hasn't been that difficult. And the reason I say that is because in the Pacific, if it's not the future, it is present. You know, it is very easy for me to explain why there is a shortage in fish, why there is food security in the Pacific. I can explain to a farmer that the reason they can't grow bananas anymore is because of the cyclones and I can explain to them that's climate change. It's not supposed to happen. It's being man-made. It's being caused. And so the idea of really like switching their mindset on climate change isn't that difficult. It's more of the explaining why things are happening and how we can make a difference in the Pacific. That's what I wanted to ask you. What are you focusing on? You and your fellow activists, because I understand you're part of a growing network of young climate activists in your region. What have you chosen as your focus areas? You know what? I think it would summarize or simmer down to capacity building. In the Pacific, it's very much focused on educating people in climate action and also providing resources and skills and upskilling into be more resilient and adapt to the new, the new world that is to come. Going into rural communities and teaching them practices or behavior changes in order to help them improve, get an income, but that's really where a lot of my work is involved in. It's a lot to do with community building and education. That sounds like a wonderful foundation building for any profound change. If we go upper level in terms of scale, what's on the top of your agenda for global decision makers to do that would really relate back to your community in Samoa? What are you asking for at COP in effect? I think it's really to set ambitious targets. A lot of people have been creating renewable energy targets to be achieved by 2050, but we do not have that much time. I think my encouragement to the leaders at COP26 would be to set more ambitious targets, but also to prioritize climate financing in Pacific islands and small island developing states. We contribute the Pacific collectively less than 1% to global greenhouse gas emissions, and we're the ones at the forefront of this climate crisis. Often when people ask us how are we helping make a change in climate? We can't really explain that because we're like, firstly, we didn't create it. Secondly, even if we did switch to 100% renewable energy, it wouldn't make such a significant difference. The big three, for me, it would definitely be to invest climate financing in rebuilding and reinforcing infrastructure in the Pacific in order for us to be prepared for the effects of this climate crisis. Can you give me an example or two of the sort of things that if that climate finance were to, if the gates were to open and that climate finance were to flood in the direction of cases like the Pacific, what would you want to spend it on in your particular area? I would definitely say reinforcing the warfs and coastal areas. A lot of villages in San Moa have had to be relocated because of coastal erosion, building bridges and making sure that our waterways are safe. We have fresh water and clean water for a lot of our villages, especially in the coast because the limelables have increased. It's things like that that I would definitely encourage more climate financing and accessibility as well to those funds in the Pacific. Okay, that makes a enormous sense to me. I wonder finally whether you can share with us something of what you're picking up through your networking with other youth climate activists in your region and around the world. What's giving you hope from that network? I would say my people, you know, and not my people, San Moa as well, but the Pacific in its entirety. Whenever I feel doubt that there is still hope, my community is always there to remind me and encourage me that we still have a chance to fight and that we're not going to drown, that we're still going to be here fighting for change. I would say one of my greatest blessings is community in the Pacific and my people. They've really helped me stay hopeful in the many times that I have not been very optimistic. That's so interesting, isn't it? How important hope is in this work. And it just occurs to me that you describe your father's career in civil engineering and infrastructure and you would like to spend those big dollars on reinforcing the infrastructure of critical parts of your islands and so on. But you've also just described the infrastructure of community and the infrastructure of hope, which is much cheaper to develop. You don't need billions of dollars for that, but you do need intent. And I'm getting that radiating from you, all those thousands of miles away plenty of intent. So I wish you every possible strength and success in your your work and life with your community there. O'Colani, it's been an absolute pleasure having you with us on the Koppuccino. Thank you so much Peter. And I hope one day we get to meet.