95bFM UN climate report: a Māori and Pasifika perspective
29 March, 2023
By Andre Fa’aoso
Professor Sandra Morrison, from the faculty of Māori and Indigenous Studies at the University of Waikato, says we are in a “dire situation” when it comes to the climate crisis. Photo: Unsplash.
The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released their latest Synthesis Report earlier this month.
The report is the most recent summary of all climate reports over the past five years. It states there is a rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all.
Despite the implementation of global climate mitigation policies since the previous Synthesis Report in 2014, the IPCC paints a bleak future where keeping global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius—a threshold scientists believe is necessary to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, is nearing impossible.
Professor Sandra Morrison from the faculty of Māori and Indigenous Studies at the University of Waikato told Andre Fa’aoso on 95bFM’s The Wire that the synthesis report reinforces “what we already know”.
Morrison said the report reinforces that we are in a “dire situation” in mitigating climate catastrophe.
Political scientist and research manager for the Pacific Ocean Climate Crisis Assessment at the University of Canterbury, Dr Christina Tausa, also told The Wire that the climate crisis has resulted in a huge “cultural loss” in the Pacific.
Tausa said that the Pasifika community needs to try and “minimise the effects of climate change on our culture”.
She pointed out the loss of significant cultural landmarks and how they can be “rebuilt in another area, but it will never have the same sentiment”.
The risk that sea level rise poses on the island nation of Tuvalu has exemplified this loss in indigenous Pacific culture and land as a direct result of climate change.
Morrison emphasised that as “land-based people”, the government and society could learn from Māori knowledge and perception of land treatment to better reach sustainability and emissions reduction goals.
Tausa also reinforced that indigenous Pacific knowledge can reinforce the global goal of meeting emissions reduction targets, and utilising a culture of only “using what is needed” can heavily benefit societies to reduce waste and emissions through increasing sustainability.
Public interest journalism funded by NZ On Air
